Arsenic, iron, lead, manganese, and uranium concentrations in private bedrock wells in southeastern New Hampshire, 2012-2013
Sarah M. Flanagan, Marcel Belaval, Joseph D. Ayotte
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3042
Trace metals, such as arsenic, iron, lead, manganese, and uranium, in groundwater used for drinking have long been a concern because of the potential adverse effects on human health and the aesthetic or nuisance problems that some present. Moderate to high concentrations of the trace metal arsenic have been identified...
Focused campaign increases activity among participants in Nature's Notebook, a citizen science project
Theresa Crimmins, Jake F. Weltzin, Alyssa H. Rosemartin, Echo M. Surina, Lee Marsh, Ellen G. Denny
2014, Natural Sciences Education (43) 64-72
Citizen science projects, which engage non-professional scientists in one or more stages of scientific research, have been gaining popularity; yet maintaining participants’ activity level over time remains a challenge. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential for a short-term, focused campaign to increase participant activity in a...
Selenium and mercury concentrations in harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) from central California: Health implications in an urbanized estuary
Elizabeth A. McHuron, James T. Harvey, J. Margaret Castellini, Craig A. Stricker, Todd M. O'Hara
2014, Marine Pollution Bulletin (83) 48-57
We measured total selenium and total mercury concentrations ([TSe] and [THg]) in hair (n = 138) and blood (n = 73) of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) from California to assess variation by geography and sex, and inferred feeding relationships based on carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur stable isotopes. Harbor seals from...
Health status of Largescale Sucker (Catostomus macrocheilus) collected along an organic contaminant gradient in the lower Columbia River, Oregon and Washington, USA
Leticia Torres, Elena B. Nilsen, Robert A. Grove, Reynaldo Patino
2014, Science of the Total Environment (484) 353-364
The health of Largescale Sucker (Catostomus macrocheilus) in the lower Columbia River (USA) was evaluated using morphometric and histopathological approaches, and its association with organic contaminants accumulated in liver was evaluated in males. Fish were sampled from three sites along a contaminant gradient In 2009, body length and mass, condition...
Differentiating transpiration from evaporation in seasonal agricultural wetlands and the link to advective fluxes in the root zone
P.A.M. Bachand, S. Bachand, Jacob A. Fleck, Frank E. Anderson, Lisamarie Windham-Myers
2014, Science of the Total Environment (484) 232-248
The current state of science and engineering related to analyzing wetlands overlooks the importance of transpiration and risks data misinterpretation. In response, we developed hydrologic and mass budgets for agricultural wetlands using electrical conductivity (EC) as a natural conservative tracer. We developed simple differential equations that quantify evaporation and transpiration...
Concurrent photolytic degradation of aqueous methylmercury and dissolved organic matter
Jacob A. Fleck, Gary W. Gill, Brian A. Bergamaschi, Tamara E.C. Kraus, Bryan D. Downing, Charles N. Alpers
2014, Science of the Total Environment (484) 263-275
Monomethyl mercury (MeHg) is a potent neurotoxin that threatens ecosystem viability and human health. In aquatic systems, the photolytic degradation of MeHg (photodemethylation) is an important component of the MeHg cycle. Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is also affected by exposure to solar radiation (light exposure) leading to changes in DOM...
A lack of crowding? Body size does not decrease with density for two behavior-manipulating parasites
KL Weinersmith, Chloe B. Warinner, Virgina Tan, David J. Harris, Adrienne B. Mora, Armand M. Kuris, Kevin D. Lafferty, Ryan F. Hechinger
2014, Integrative and Comparative Biology (54) 184-192
For trophically transmitted parasites that manipulate the phenotype of their hosts, whether the parasites do or do not experience resource competition depends on such factors as the size of the parasites relative to their hosts, the intensity of infection, the extent to which parasites share the cost of defending against...
Determination of human-use pharmaceuticals in filtered water by direct aqueous injection: high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry
Edward T. Furlong, Mary C. Noriega, Christopher J. Kanagy, Leslie K. Kanagy, Laura J. Coffey, Mark R. Burkhardt
2014, Techniques and Methods 5-B10
This report describes a method for the determination of 110 human-use pharmaceuticals using a 100-microliter aliquot of a filtered water sample directly injected into a high-performance liquid chromatograph coupled to a triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer using an electrospray ionization source operated in the positive ion mode. The pharmaceuticals were separated...
Water withdrawals, use, and trends in Florida, 2010
Richard L. Marella
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5088
In 2010, the total amount of water withdrawn in Florida was estimated to be 14,988 million gallons per day (Mgal/d). Saline water accounted for 8,589 Mgal/d (57 percent) and freshwater accounted for 6,399 Mgal/d (43 percent). Groundwater accounted for 4,166 Mgal/d (65 percent) of freshwater withdrawals, and surface water accounted...
Assessment of the fish tumor beneficial use impairment in brown bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus) at selected Great Lakes Areas of Concern
Vicki Blazer, Patricia M. Mazik, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Ryan P. Braham, Cassidy M. Hahn, Heather L. Walsh, Adam J. Sperry
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1105
A total of 878 adult Brown Bullhead were collected at 11 sites within the Lake Erie and Lake Ontario drainages from 2011 to 2013. The sites included seven Areas of Concern (AOC; 670 individuals), one delisted AOC (50 individuals) and three non-AOC sites (158 individuals) used as reference sites. These...
Evidence against a Pleistocene desert refugium in the Lower Colorado River Basin
Camille A. Holmgren, Julio L. Betancourt, M. Cristina Penalba, Jose Delgadillo, Kristin Zuravnsky, Kimberly L. Hunter, Kate A. Rylander, Jeremy L. Weiss
2014, Journal of Biogeography (41) 1769-1780
Aim The absence of Sonoran Desert plants in late Pleistocene-aged packrat middens has led to speculation that they survived glacial episodes either in refugia as intact associations (Clementsian community concept) or in dry microsites within chaparral or woodland according to individualistic species responses (Gleasonian community concept). To test these...
Past, present, and future of water data delivery from the U.S. Geological Survey
Robert M. Hirsch, Gary T. Fisher
2014, Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education 4-15
We present an overview of national water databases managed by the U.S. Geological Survey, including surface-water, groundwater, water-quality, and water-use data. These are readily accessible to users through web interfaces and data services. Multiple perspectives of data are provided, including search and retrieval of real-time data and historical data, on-demand...
Sensor data as a measure of native freshwater mussel impact on nitrate formation and food digestion in continuous-flow mesocosms
Jeremy S. Bril, Jonathan J. Durst, Brion M. Hurley, Craig L. Just, Teresa J. Newton
2014, Freshwater Science (33) 417-424
Native freshwater mussels can influence the aquatic N cycle, but the mechanisms and magnitude of this effect are not fully understood. We assessed the effects of Amblema plicata and Lampsilis cardium on N transformations over 72 d in 4 continuous-flow mesocosms, with 2 replicates of 2 treatments (mesocosms with and...
Nesting ecology and nest survival of lesser prairie-chickens on the Southern High Plains of Texas
Blake A. Grisham, Philip K. Borsdorf, Clint W. Boal, Kathy K. Boydston
2014, Journal of Wildlife Management (78) 857-866
The decline in population and range of lesser prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) throughout the central and southern Great Plains has raised concerns considering their candidate status under the United States Endangered Species Act. Baseline ecological data for lesser prairie-chickens are limited, especially for the shinnery oak-grassland communities of Texas. This information...
Three-dimensional imaging, change detection, and stability assessment during the centerline trench levee seepage experiment using terrestrial light detection and ranging technology, Twitchell Island, California, 2012
Gerald W. Bawden, James Howle, Sandra Bond, Michelle Shriro, Peter Buck
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1092
A full scale field seepage test was conducted on a north-south trending levee segment of a now bypassed old meander belt on Twitchell Island, California, to understand the effects of live and decaying root systems on levee seepage and slope stability. The field test in May 2012 was centered on...
Geologic framework for the national assessment of carbon dioxide storage resources: Alaska North Slope and Kandik Basin, Alaska
William H. Craddock, Marc L. Buursink, Jacob A. Covault, Sean T. Brennan, Colin A. Doolan, Ronald M. Drake II, Matthew D. Merrill, Tina L. Roberts-Ashby, Ernie R. Slucher, Peter D. Warwick, Madalyn S. Blondes, P.A. Freeman, Steven M. Cahan, Christina A. DeVera, Celeste D. Lohr
Peter D. Warwick, M.D. Corum, editor(s)
2014, Open-File Report 2012-1024-I
This report presents fourteen storage assessment units (SAUs) from the Alaska North Slope and two SAUs from the Kandik Basin of Alaska. The Alaska North Slope is a broad, north-dipping coastal plain that is underlain by a thick succession of sedimentary rocks that accumulated steadily throughout much of the Phanerozoic...
Identification and characterization of Highlands J virus from a Mississippi sandhill crane using unbiased next-generation sequencing
S. Ip, Michael R. Wiley, Renee Long, Palacios Gustavo, Valerie Shearn-Bochsler, Chris A. Whitehouse
2014, Journal of Virological Methods (206) 42-45
Advances in massively parallel DNA sequencing platforms, commonly termed next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, have greatly reduced time, labor, and cost associated with DNA sequencing. Thus, NGS has become a routine tool for new viral pathogen discovery and will likely become the standard for routine laboratory diagnostics of infectious diseases in...
Validating a method for transferring social values of ecosystem services between public lands in the Rocky Mountain region
Benson C. Sherrouse, Darius J. Semmens
2014, Ecosystem Services (8) 166-177
With growing pressures on ecosystem services, social values attributed to them are increasingly important to land management decisions. Social values, defined here as perceived values the public ascribes to ecosystem services, particularly cultural services, are generally not accounted for through economic markets or considered alongside economic and ecological values in...
Strategies for preventing invasive plant outbreaks after prescribed fire in ponderosa pine forest
Amy J. Symstad, Wesley E. Newton, Daniel J. Swanson
2014, Forest Ecology and Management (324) 81-88
Land managers use prescribed fire to return a vital process to fire-adapted ecosystems, restore forest structure from a state altered by long-term fire suppression, and reduce wildfire intensity. However, fire often produces favorable conditions for invasive plant species, particularly if it is intense enough to reveal bare mineral soil and...
Flood inundation maps for the Wabash and Eel Rivers at Logansport, Indiana
Kathleen K. Fowler
2014, Scientific Investigations Map 3293
Digital flood-inundation maps for an 8.3-mile reach of the Wabash River and a 7.6-mile reach of the Eel River at Logansport, Indiana (Ind.), were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs. The inundation maps, which can be accessed through...
Multiseason occupancy models for correlated replicate surveys
James E. Hines, James D. Nichols, Jaime Collazo
2014, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (5) 583-591
Occupancy surveys collecting data from adjacent (sometimes correlated) spatial replicates have become relatively popular for logistical reasons. Hines et al. (2010) presented one approach to modelling such data for single-season occupancy surveys. Here, we present a multiseason analogue of this...
Hydrogeologic framework, groundwater movement, and water budget of the Kitsap Peninsula, west-central Washington
Wendy B. Welch, Lonna M. Frans, Theresa D. Olsen
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5106
This report presents information used to characterize the groundwater-flow system on the Kitsap Peninsula, and includes descriptions of the geology and hydrogeologic framework, groundwater recharge and discharge, groundwater levels and flow directions, seasonal groundwater-level fluctuations, interactions between aquifers and the surface‑water system, and a water budget. The Kitsap Peninsula is...
Karst geomorphology and hydrology of the Shenandoah Valley near Harrisonburg, Virginia
Daniel H. Doctor, Wil Orndorff, Joel Maynard, Matthew J. Heller, Gerolamo C. Casile
2014, GSA Field Guides (35) 161-213
The karst of the central Shenandoah Valley has characteristics of both shallow and deep phreatic formation. This field guide focuses on the region around Harrisonburg, Virginia, where a number of these karst features and their associated geologic context can be examined. Ancient, widespread alluvial deposits cover much of the carbonate...
Simulating future residential property losses from wildfire in Flathead County, Montana
Tony Prato, Travis B Paveglio, Yan Barnett, Robin Silverstein, Michael Hardy, Robert Keane, Rachel A. Loehman, Anthony Clark, Daniel B. Fagre, Tyron Venn, Keith Stockmann
2014, Book chapter, Advances in environmental research
Wildfire damages to private residences in the United States and elsewhere have increased as a result of expansion of the wildland-urban interface (WUI) and other factors. Understanding this unwelcome trend requires analytical frameworks that simulate how various interacting social, economic, and biophysical factors influence those damages. A methodological framework is...
Compositional and stable carbon isotopic fractionation during non-autocatalytic thermochemical sulfate reduction by gaseous hydrocarbons
Xinyu Xia, Geoffrey S. Ellis, Qisheng Ma, Yongchun Tang
2014, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (139) 472-486
The possibility of autocatalysis during thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR) by gaseous hydrocarbons was investigated by examination of previously reported laboratory and field data. This reaction was found to be a kinetically controlled non-autocatalytic process, and the apparent lack of autocatalysis is thought to be due to the absence of the...
