Groundwater levels and water quality during a 96-hour aquifer test in Pickaway County, Ohio, 2012
Ralph J. Haefner, Donna L. Runkle, Brian E. Mailot
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5040
During October–November 2012, a 96-hour aquifer test was performed at a proposed well field in northern Pickaway County, Ohio, to investigate groundwater with elevated nitrate concentrations. Earlier sampling done by the City of Columbus revealed that some wells had concentrations of nitrate that approached 10 milligrams per liter (mg/L), whereas...
Temperature data acquired from the DOI/GTN-P Deep Borehole Array on the Arctic Slope of Alaska, 1973-2013
Gary D. Clow
2014, Earth System Science Data (6) 201-218
A homogeneous set of temperature measurements obtained from the DOI/GTN-P Deep Borehole Array between 1973 and 2013 is presented; DOI/GTN-P is the US Department of the Interior contribution to the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P). The 23-element array is located on the Arctic Slope of Alaska, a region of cold...
Glacial geology of the Shingobee River headwaters area, north-central Minnesota
Robert C. Melchior
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5165
During middle and late Wisconsin time in the Shingobee River headwaters area, the Laurentide Wadena lobe, Hewitt and Itasca phases, produced terminal and ground moraine along with a variety of associated glacial features. The stratigraphic record is accessible and provides details of depositional mode as well as principal glacial events...
Discharge, water temperature, and selected meteorological data for Vancouver Lake, Vancouver, Washington, water years 2011-13
James R. Foreman, Cameron A. Marshall, Rich W. Sheibley
2014, Data Series 849
The U.S. Geological Survey partnered with the Vancouver Lake Watershed Partnership in a 2-year intensive study to quantify the movement of water and nutrients through Vancouver Lake in Vancouver, Washington. This report is intended to assist the Vancouver Lake Watershed Partnership in evaluating potential courses of action to mitigate seasonally...
Spatial distribution of loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) emergences along a highly dynamic beach in the northern Gulf of Mexico
Margaret M. Lamont, Chris Houser
2014, Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology (453) 98-107
As coastlines change due to sea level rise and an increasing human presence, understanding how species, such as marine turtles, respond to alterations in habitat is necessary for proper management and conservation. Survey data from a major nesting beach in the northern Gulf of Mexico, where a revetment was installed,...
Tailoring point counts for inference about avian density: dealing with nondetection and availability
Fred A. Johnson, Robert M. Dorazio, Traci D. Castellon, Julien Martin, Jay O. Garcia, James D. Nichols
2014, Natural Resource Modeling (27) 163-177
Point counts are commonly used for bird surveys, but interpretation is ambiguous unless there is an accounting for the imperfect detection of individuals. We show how repeated point counts, supplemented by observation distances, can account for two aspects of the counting process: (1) detection of birds conditional on being available...
Organic substances in produced and formation water from unconventional natural gas extraction in coal and shale
William H. Orem, Calin A. Tatu, Matthew S. Varonka, Harry E. Lerch, Anne L. Bates, Mark A. Engle, Lynn M. Crosby, Jennifer McIntosh
2014, International Journal of Coal Geology (126) 20-31
Organic substances in produced and formation water from coalbed methane (CBM) and gas shale plays from across the USA were examined in this study. Disposal of produced waters from gas extraction in coal and shale is an important environmental issue because of the large volumes of water involved and the...
Large biases in regression-based constituent flux estimates: causes and diagnostic tools
Robert M. Hirsch
2014, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (50) 1401-1424
It has been documented in the literature that, in some cases, widely used regression-based models can produce severely biased estimates of long-term mean river fluxes of various constituents. These models, estimated using sample values of concentration, discharge, and date, are used to compute estimated fluxes for a multiyear period at...
Insights into biodegradation through depth-resolved microbial community functional and structural profiling of a crude-oil contaminant plume
Nicole Fahrenfeld, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Zach Bailey, Amy Pruden
2014, Microbial Ecology (68) 453-462
Small-scale geochemical gradients are a key feature of aquifer contaminant plumes, highlighting the need for functional and structural profiling of corresponding microbial communities on a similar scale. The purpose of this study was to characterize the microbial functional and structural diversity with depth across representative redox zones of a hydrocarbon...
Early signs of recovery of Acropora palmata in St. John, US Virgin Islands
E. M. Muller, Caroline S. Rogers, R. van Woesik
2014, Marine Biology (161) 359-365
Since the 1980s, diseases have caused significant declines in the population of the threatened Caribbean coral Acropora palmata. Yet it is largely unknown whether the population densities have recovered from these declines and whether there have been any recent shifts in size-frequency distributions toward large colonies. It is also unknown...
Low-altitude photographic transects of the Arctic Network of National Park Units and Selawik National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, July 2013
Bruce G. Marcot, M. Torre Jorgenson, Anthony R. DeGange
2014, Data Series 846
During July 16–18, 2013, low-level photography flights were conducted (with a Cessna 185 with floats and a Cessna 206 with tundra tires) over the five administrative units of the National Park Service Arctic Network (Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Gates of the Arctic National Park and...
Passage of native riverine fishes through geometrically different sections of a vertical slot fishway on the Moselle River, Germany
Matthias Pitsch, Bernd Mockenhaupt, Theodore R. Castro-Santos
2014, Book, Ecohydraulics 2014 Conference Proceedings
In order to study effects of different geometric types of pools or change of the flow direction on the passability of fish, sets of PIT antennas were installed inside a modern vertical slot fishway at the mouth of the River Moselle. Fish of 13 abundant species were caught and tagged...
Fuzzy boundaries: color and gene flow patterns among parapatric lineages of the western shovel-nosed snake and taxonomic implication
Dustin A. Wood, Robert N. Fisher, Amy G. Vandergast
2014, PLoS ONE (9)
Accurate delineation of lineage diversity is increasingly important, as species distributions are becoming more reduced and threatened. During the last century, the subspecies category was often used to denote phenotypic variation within a species range and to provide a framework for understanding lineage differentiation, often considered incipient speciation. While this...
Unsaturated flow characterization utilizing water content data collected within the capillary fringe
Arthur Baehr, Timothy J. Reilly
2014, Air, Soil and Water Research (7) 47-52
An analysis is presented to determine unsaturated zone hydraulic parameters based on detailed water content profiles, which can be readily acquired during hydrological investigations. Core samples taken through the unsaturated zone allow for the acquisition of gravimetrically determined water content data as a function of elevation at 3 inch intervals....
Landscape selection by piping plovers has implications for measuring habitat and population size
Michael J. Anteau, Terry L. Shaffer, Mark T. Wiltermuth, Mark H. Sherfy
2014, Landscape Ecology (29) 1033-1044
How breeding birds distribute in relation to landscape-scale habitat features has important implications for conservation because those features may constrain habitat suitability. Furthermore, knowledge of these associations can help build models to improve area-wide demographic estimates or to develop a sampling stratification for research and monitoring. This is particularly important...
The USGS National Streamflow Information Program and the importance of preserving long-term streamgages
Glenn A. Hodgkins, J. Michael Norris, Robert M. Lent
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3026
Long-term streamflow information is critical for use in several water-related areas that are important to humans and wildlife, including water management, computation of flood and drought flows for water infrastructure, and analysis of climate-related trends. Specific uses are many and diverse and range from informing water rights across state and...
Hydrogeology and water quality of the Nanticoke Creek stratified-drift aquifer, near Endicott, New York
Elizabeth A. Kreitinger, William M. Kappel
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5063
The Village of Endicott, New York, is seeking an alternate source of public drinking water with the potential to supplement their current supply, which requires treatment due to legacy contamination. The southerly-draining Nanticoke Creek valley, located north of the village, was identified as a potential water source and the local...
Water resources of De Soto Parish, Louisiana
Lawrence B. Prakken, Vincent E. White
2014, Fact Sheet 2013-3107
Information concerning the availability, use, and quality of water in De Soto Parish, Louisiana, is critical for proper water-supply management. The purpose of this fact sheet is to present information that can be used by water managers, parish residents, and others for stewardship of this vital resource. Information on the...
Three-dimensional seismic velocity structure and earthquake relocations at Katmai, Alaska
Rachel Murphy, Clifford Thurber, Stephanie G. Prejean, Ninfa Bennington
2014, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (276) 121-131
We invert arrival time data from local earthquakes occurring between September 2004 and May 2009 to determine the three-dimensional (3D) upper crustal seismic structure in the Katmai volcanic region. Waveforms for the study come from the Alaska Volcano Observatory's permanent network of 20 seismic stations in the area (predominantly single-component,...
Seismicity and seismic structure at Okmok Volcano, Alaska
Summer J. Ohlendorf, Clifford H. Thurber, Jeremy D. Pesicek, Stephanie G. Prejean
2014, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (278-279) 103-119
Okmok volcano is an active volcanic caldera located on the northeastern portion of Umnak Island in the Aleutian arc, with recent eruptions in 1997 and 2008. The Okmok area had ~900 locatable earthquakes between 2003 and June 2008, and an additional ~600 earthquakes from the beginning of the 2008 eruption...
Accuracy assessment of the U.S. Geological Survey National Elevation Dataset, and comparison with other large-area elevation datasets: SRTM and ASTER
Dean B. Gesch, Michael J. Oimoen, Gayla A. Evans
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1008
The National Elevation Dataset (NED) is the primary elevation data product produced and distributed by the U.S. Geological Survey. The NED provides seamless raster elevation data of the conterminous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. island territories, Mexico, and Canada. The NED is derived from diverse source datasets that are processed...
The search for geologic evidence of distant-source tsunamis using new field data in California
Rick Wilson, Eileen Hemphill-Haley, Bruce Jaffe, Bruce Richmond, Robert Peters, Nick Graehl, Harvey Kelsey, Robert Leeper, Steve Watt, Mary McGann, Don F. Hoirup, Catherine Chague-Goff, James Goff, Dylan Caldwell, Casey Loofbourrow
2014, Open-File Report 2013-1170-C
A statewide assessment for geological evidence of tsunamis, primarily from distant-source events, found tsunami deposits at several locations, though evidence was absent at most locations evaluated. Several historical distant-source tsunamis, including the 1946 Aleutian, 1960 Chile, and 1964 Alaska events, caused inundation along portions of the northern and central California...
Impacts of white-tailed deer on red trillium (Trillium recurvatum): defining a threshold for deer browsing pressure at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
Noel B. Pavlovic, Stacey A. Leicht-Young, Ralph Grundel
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5070
Overabundant white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have been a concern for land managers in eastern North America because of their impacts on native forest ecosystems. Managers have sought native plant species to serve as phytoindicators of deer impacts to supplement deer surveys. We analyzed experimental data about red trillium (Trillium recurvatum),...
Post-earthquake relaxation using a spectral element method: 2.5-D case
Frederick Pollitz
2014, Geophysical Journal International (198) 308-326
The computation of quasi-static deformation for axisymmetric viscoelastic structures on a gravitating spherical earth is addressed using the spectral element method (SEM). A 2-D spectral element domain is defined with respect to spherical coordinates of radius and angular distance from a pole of symmetry, and 3-D viscoelastic structure is assumed...
Geochemical and mineralogical maps for soils of the conterminous United States
David B. Smith, William F. Cannon, Laurel G. Woodruff, Federico Solano, Karl J. Ellefsen
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1082
The U.S. Geological Survey began sampling in 2007 for a low-density (1 site per 1,600 square kilometers, 4,857 sites) geochemical and mineralogical survey of soils in the conterminous United States as part of the North American Soil Geochemical Landscapes Project. The sampling protocol for the national-scale survey included, at each...
