Herbivores and nutrients control grassland plant diversity via light limitation
Elizabeth T. Borer, Eric W. Seabloom, Daniel S. Gruner, W. Stanley Harpole, Helmut Hillebrand, Eric M. Lind, Peter B. Alder, Juan Alberti, T. Michael Anderson, Jonathan D. Bakker, Lori Biederman, Dana Blumenthal, Cynthia S. Brown, Lars A. Brudvig, Yvonne M. Buckley, Marc Cadotte, Cheng-Jin Chu, Elsa E. Cleland, Michael J. Crawley, Pedro Daleo, Ellen Ingman Damschen, Kendi F. Davies, Nicole M. DeCrappeo, Guozhen Du, Jennifer Firn, Yann Hautier, Robert W. Heckman, Andy Hector, Janneke HilleRisLambers, Oscar Iribarne, Julia A. Klein, Johannes M.H. Knops, Kimberly J. La Pierre, Andrew D.B. Leakey, Wei Li, Andrew S. MacDougall, Rebecca L. McCulley, Brett A. Melbourne, Charles E. Mitchell, Joslin L. Moore, Brent Mortensen, Lydia R. O’Halloran, John L. Orrock, Jesus Pascual, Suzanne M. Prober, David A. Pyke, Anita C. Risch, Martin Schuetz, Melinda D. Smith, Carly J. Stevens, Lauren L. Sullivan, Ryan J. Williams, Peter D. Wragg, Justin P. Wright, Louie H. Yang
2014, Nature (508) 517-520
Human alterations to nutrient cycles and herbivore communities are affecting global biodiversity dramatically. Ecological theory predicts these changes should be strongly counteractive: nutrient addition drives plant species loss through intensified competition for light, whereas herbivores prevent competitive exclusion by increasing ground-level light, particularly in productive systems. Here we use experimental...
Modeling marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) habitat using LiDAR-derived canopy data
Joan C. Hagar, Bianca Eskelson, Patricia K. Haggerty, S. Kim Nelson, David G. Vesely
2014, Wildlife Society Bulletin (38) 237-249
LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) is an emerging remote-sensing tool that can provide fine-scale data describing vertical complexity of vegetation relevant to species that are responsive to forest structure. We used LiDAR data to estimate occupancy probability for the federally threatened marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) in the Oregon Coast Range...
HydroClimATe: hydrologic and climatic analysis toolkit
Jesse E. Dickinson, Randall T. Hanson, Steven K. Predmore
2014, Techniques and Methods 4-A9
The potential consequences of climate variability and climate change have been identified as major issues for the sustainability and availability of the worldwide water resources. Unlike global climate change, climate variability represents deviations from the long-term state of the climate over periods of a few years to several decades. Currently,...
Assessment of sediments in the riverine impoundments of national wildlife refuges in the Souris River Basin, North Dakota
Brian A. Tangen, Murray K. Laubhan, Robert A. Gleason
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5018
Accelerated sedimentation of reservoirs and riverine impoundments is a major concern throughout the United States. Sediments not only fill impoundments and reduce their effective life span, but they can reduce water quality by increasing turbidity and introducing harmful chemical constituents such as heavy metals, toxic elements, and nutrients. U.S. Fish...
Geochronology of plutonic rocks and their tectonic terranes in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, southeast Alaska
David A. Brew, Kathleen E. Tellier, Marvin A. Lanphere, Diane C. Nielsen, James G. Smith, Ronald A. Sonnevil
2014, Professional Paper 1776-E
We have identified six major belts and two nonbelt occurrences of plutonic rocks in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve and characterized them on the basis of geologic mapping, igneous petrology, geochemistry, and isotopic dating. The six plutonic belts and two other occurrences are, from oldest to youngest: (1) Jurassic...
Microbial aggregates within tissues infect a diversity of corals throughout the Indo-Pacific
Thierry M. Work, Greta S. Aeby
2014, Marine Ecology Progress Series (500) 1-9
Coral reefs are highly diverse ecosystems where symbioses play a pivotal role. Corals contain cell-associated microbial aggregates (CAMA), yet little is known about how widespread they are among coral species or the nature of the symbiotic relationship. Using histology, we found CAMA within 24 species of corals from 6 genera...
Water resources of Cameron Parish, Louisiana
Lawrence B. Prakken
2014, Fact Sheet 2013-3076
This fact sheet presents a brief overview of groundwater and surface-water resources in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Information on the availability, use, and quality of water from groundwater and surface-water sources in the parish is discussed. Previously published reports and data stored in the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water Information System...
Water resources of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
Lawrence B. Prakken, John K. Lovelace
2014, Fact Sheet 2013-3073
This fact sheet presents a brief overview of groundwater and surface-water resources in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Information on the availability, use, and quality of water from groundwater and surface-water sources in the parish is discussed. Previously published reports and data stored in the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water Information System...
Simulation of groundwater flow in the "1,500-foot" sand and "2,000-foot" sand, with scenarios to mitigate saltwater migration in the "2,000-foot" sand of the Baton Rouge area, Louisiana
Charles E. Heywood, Jason M. Griffith, John K. Lovelace
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5227
Groundwater withdrawals have caused saltwater to encroach into freshwater-bearing aquifers beneath Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Groundwater investigations in the 1960s identified a freshwater-saltwater interface located at the Baton Rouge Fault, across which abrupt changes in water levels occur. Aquifers south of the fault generally contain saltwater, and aquifers north of the...
Floodplain biogeochemical processing of floodwaters in the Atchafalaya River Basin during the Mississippi River flood of 2011
Durelle T. Scott, Richard F. Keim, Brandon L. Edwards, C. Nathan Jones, Daniel E. Kroes
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (119) 537-546
The 2011 flood in the Lower Mississippi resulted in the second highest recorded river flow diverted into the Atchafalaya River Basin (ARB). The higher water levels during the flood peak resulted in high hydrologic connectivity between the Atchafalaya River and floodplain, with up to 50% of the Atchafalaya River water...
ListingAnalyst: A program for analyzing the main output file from MODFLOW
Richard B. Winston, Scott Paulinski
2014, Ground Water (52) 317-321
ListingAnalyst is a Windows® program for viewing the main output file from MODFLOW-2005, MODFLOW-NWT, or MODFLOW-LGR. It organizes and displays large files quickly without using excessive memory. The sections and subsections of the file are displayed in a tree-view control, which allows the user to navigate quickly to desired locations...
Vocal activity as a low cost and scalable index of seabird colony size
Abraham L. Borker, Matthew W. McKown, Joshua T. Ackerman, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Bernie R. Tershy, Donald A. Croll
2014, Conservation Biology (28) 1100-1108
Although wildlife conservation actions have increased globally in number and complexity, the lack of scalable, cost-effective monitoring methods limits adaptive management and the evaluation of conservation efficacy. Automated sensors and computer-aided analyses provide a scalable and increasingly cost-effective tool for conservation monitoring. A key assumption of automated acoustic monitoring of...
Crustal migration of CO2-rich magmatic fluids recorded by tree-ring radiocarbon and seismicity at Mammoth Mountain, CA, USA
Jennifer L. Lewicki, George E. Hilley, David R. Shelly, John C. King, John P. McGeehin, Margaret T. Mangan, William C. Evans
2014, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (390) 52-58
Unrest at Mammoth Mountain over the past several decades, manifest by seismicity, ground deformation, diffuse CO2 emissions, and elevated 3He/4He ratios in fumarolic gases has been driven by the release of CO2-rich fluids from basaltic intrusions in the middle to lower crust. Recent unrest included the occurrence of three lower-crustal...
Mercury in fishes from 21 national parks in the Western United States: inter- and intra-park variation in concentrations and ecological risk
Collin A. Eagles-Smith, James J. Willacker, Colleen M. Flanagan Pritz
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1051
Mercury (Hg) is a global contaminant and human activities have increased atmospheric Hg concentrations 3- to 5-fold during the past 150 years. This increased release into the atmosphere has resulted in elevated loadings to aquatic habitats where biogeochemical processes promote the microbial conversion of inorganic Hg to methylmercury, the bioavailable...
Observations of static Coulomb stress triggering of the November 2011 M5.7 Oklahoma earthquake sequence
Danielle F. Sumy, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Katie M. Keranen, Maya Wei, Geoffrey A. Abers
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (119) 1904-1923
In November 2011, a M5.0 earthquake occurred less than a day before a M5.7 earthquake near Prague, Oklahoma, which may have promoted failure of the mainshock and thousands of aftershocks along the Wilzetta fault, including a M5.0 aftershock. The M5.0 foreshock occurred in close proximity to active fluid injection wells;...
Comparison of smoothing methods for the development of a smoothed seismicity model for Alaska and the implications for seismic hazard
Morgan P. Moschetti, Charles S. Mueller, Oliver S. Boyd, Mark D. Petersen
2014, Book, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2013
In anticipation of the update of the Alaska seismic hazard maps (ASHMs) by the U. S. Geological Survey, we report progress on the comparison of smoothed seismicity models developed using fixed and adaptive smoothing algorithms, and investigate the sensitivity of seismic hazard to the models. While fault-based sources, such as...
Gnathostoma spinigerum in live Asian swamp eels (Monopterus spp.) from food markets and wild populations, United States
Rebecca A. Cole, Anindo Choudhury, Leo G. Nico, Kathryn M. Griffin
2014, Emerging Infectious Diseases (20) 634-642
In Southeast Asia, swamp eels (Synbranchidae: Monopterus spp.) are a common source of human gnathostomiasis, a foodborne zoonosis caused by advanced third-stage larvae (AL3) of Gnathostoma spp. nematodes. Live Asian swamp eels are imported to US ethnic food markets, and wild populations exist in several states. To determine whether these...
Sea-floor geology in northwestern Block Island Sound, Rhode Island
Katherine Y. McMullen, Lawrence J. Poppe, Seth D. Ackerman, Dann S. Blackwood, D.A. Woods
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1018
Multibeam-echosounder and sidescan-sonar data, collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in a 69-square-kilometer area of northwestern Block Island Sound, are used with sediment samples, and still and video photography of the sea floor, collected by the U.S. Geological Survey at 43 stations within this area, to interpret the...
Combined multibeam and bathymetry data from Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound: a regional perspective
Lawrence J. Poppe, Katherine Y. McMullen, William W. Danforth, Mark R. Blankenship, Andrew R. Clos, Kimberly A. Glomb, Peter G. Lewit, Megan A. Nadeau, Douglas A. Wood, Castleton E. Parker
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1012
Detailed bathymetric maps of the sea floor in Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds are of great interest to the New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts research and management communities because of this area's ecological, recreational, and commercial importance. Geologically interpreted digital terrain models from individual surveys provide important benthic...
Quantifying benthic nitrogen fluxes in Puget Sound, Washington: a review of available data
Richard W. Sheibley, Anthony J. Paulson
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5033
Understanding benthic fluxes is important for understanding the fate of materials that settle to the Puget Sound, Washington, seafloor, as well as the impact these fluxes have on the chemical composition and biogeochemical cycles of marine waters. Existing approaches used to measure benthic nitrogen flux in Puget Sound and elsewhere...
A framework for assessing water and proppant use and flowback water extraction associated with development of continuous petroleum resources
Seth S. Haines, Troy Cook, Joanna N. Thamke, Kyle W. Davis, Andrew J. Long, Richard W. Healy, Sarah J. Hawkins, Mark A. Engle
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3010
The U.S. Geological Survey is developing approaches for the quantitative assessment of water and proppant involved with possible future production of continuous petroleum deposits. The assessment approach is an extension of existing U.S. Geological Survey petroleum-assessment methods, and it aims to provide objective information that helps decision makers understand the...
Spatial variability in survival of adult brook trout within two intensively surveyed headwater stream networks
Yoichiro Kanno, Benjamin Letcher, Jason C. Vokoun, Elise Zipkin
2014, Canadian Journal Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (71) 1010-1019
Headwater stream networks are considered heterogeneous riverscapes, but it is challenging to characterize spatial variability in demographic rates. We estimated site-scale (50 m) survival of adult (>age 1+) brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) within two intensively surveyed headwater stream networks by applying an open-population N-mixture approach to count data collected over...
Spatial mapping and attribution of Wyoming wind turbines, 2012
Michael S. O'Donnell, Tammy S. Fancher
2014, Data Series 828
These data represent locations of wind turbines found within Wyoming as of August 2012. We assigned each wind turbine to a wind farm and, in these data, provide information about each turbine’s potential megawatt output, rotor diameter, hub height, rotor height, the status of the land ownership where the turbine...
Miocene burial and exhumation of the India-Asia collision zone in southern Tibet: response to slab dynamics and erosion
Barbara Carrapa, D.A. Orme, Peter G. DeCelles, Paul Kapp, Michael A. Cosca, R. Waldrip
2014, Geology
The India-Asia collision zone in southern Tibet preserves a record of geodynamic and erosional processes following intercontinental collision. Apatite fission-track and zircon and apatite (U-Th)/He data from the Oligocene–Miocene Kailas Formation, within the India-Asia collision zone, show a synchronous cooling signal at 17 ± 1 Ma, which is younger than...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for Oregon
William J. Carswell Jr.
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3014
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of business uses, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. In the State of Oregon, elevation data are critical for river and stream resource management; forest resources management; water supply and quality; infrastructure and construction...
