Applying threshold concepts to conservation management of dryland ecosystems: Case studies on the Colorado Plateau
Matthew A. Bowker, Mark E. Miller, Steven L. Garman, Travis Belote
Glenn R. Guntenspergen, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Application of threshold concepts in natural resource decision making
Ecosystems may occupy functionally distinct alternative states, some of which are more or less desirable from a management standpoint. Transitions from state to state are usually associated with a particular trigger or sequence of triggers, such as the addition or subtraction of a disturbance. Transitions are often not linear, rather...
2011 Summary: Coastal wetland restoration research
Kurt P. Kowalski, Michael J. Wiley, Douglas A. Wilcox, Martha L. Carlson Mazur, Alex Czayka, Andrea Dominguez, Susan Doty, Mike Eggleston, Sean Green, Amanda Sweetman
2014, Report
The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) projects currently taking place in Great Lakes coastal wetlands provide a unique opportunity to study ecosystem response to management actions as practitioners strive to improve wetland function and increase ecosystem services. Through a partnership between the U.S. Geological Survey – Great Lakes Science Center...
Development and characterization of 12 microsatellite markers for the Island Night Lizard (Xantusia riversiana), a threatened species endemic to the Channel Islands, California, USA
Ryan P. O’Donnell, Charles A. Drost, Karen E. Mock
2014, Conservation Genetics Resources (6) 699-700
The Island Night Lizard is a federally threatened species endemic to the Channel Islands of California. Twelve microsatellite loci were developed for use in this species and screened in 197 individuals from across San Nicolas Island, California. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 6 to 21. Observed heterozygosities...
A geologic approach to field methods in fluvial geomorphology
Faith A. Fitzpatrick
Mary J Thornbush, Casey D Allen, Faith A. Fitzpatrick, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Geomorphological Fieldwork
A geologic approach to field methods in fluvial geomorphology is useful for understanding causes and consequences of past, present, and possible future perturbations in river behavior and floodplain dynamics. Field methods include characterizing river planform and morphology changes and floodplain sedimentary sequences over long periods of time along a longitudinal...
"Report a Landslide” A website to engage the public in identifying geologic hazards
Rex L. Baum, Lynn M. Highland, Peter T. Lyttle, Jeremy Fee, Eric Martinez, Lisa A. Wald
2014, Conference Paper, Landslide science for a safer geoenvironment, Vol.1: The International Programme on Landslides (IPL)
Direct observation by people is the most practical way of identifying, locating, and describing most damaging landslides. In an effort to increase public awareness of landslide hazards and encourage public participation in collecting basic data about landslides, the USGS recently launched a website called “Report a landslide.” The website is...
Predicting the spatial extent of liquefaction from geospatial and earthquake specific parameters
Jing Zhu, Laurie G. Baise, Eric M. Thompson, David J. Wald, Keith L. Knudsen
George Deodatis, Bruce R. Ellingwood, Dan M. Frangopol, editor(s)
2014, Conference Paper, Safety, reliability, risk and life-cycle performance of structures and infrastructures: Proceedings of the 11th international conference on structural safety and reliability
The spatially extensive damage from the 2010-2011 Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake events are a reminder of the need for liquefaction hazard maps for anticipating damage from future earthquakes. Liquefaction hazard mapping as traditionally relied on detailed geologic mapping and expensive site studies. These traditional techniques are difficult to apply globally...
Latest Quaternary paleoseismology and evidence of distributed dextral shear along the Mohawk Valley fault zone, northern Walker Lane, California
Ryan D. Gold, Richard W. Briggs, Stephen Personius, Anthony J. Crone, Shannon A. Mahan, Stephen Angster
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (119) 5014-5032
The dextral-slip Mohawk Valley fault zone (MVFZ) strikes northwestward along the eastern margin of the Sierra Nevada in the northern Walker Lane. Geodetic block modeling indicates that the MVFZ may accommodate ~3 mm/yr of regional dextral strain, implying that it is the highest slip-rate strike-slip fault in the region; however,...
Mount Rainier National Park
Robert Hoffman, Andrea Woodward, Patricia K. Haggerty, Kurt J. Jenkins, Paul C. Griffin, M. J. Adams, Joan Hagar, Tonnie Cummings, Dan Duriscoe, Karen Kopper, Jon Riedel, Barbara Samora, Lelaina Marin, Guillaume S. Mauger, Karen Bumbaco, Jeremy S. Littell
2014, Report
Natural Resource Condition Assessments (NRCAs) evaluate current conditions for a subset of natural resources and resource indicators in national parks. NRCAs also report on trends in resource condition (when possible), identify critical data gaps, and characterize a general level of confidence for study findings. The resources and indicators emphasized in...
Pros and cons of rotating ground motion records to fault-normal/parallel directions for response history analysis of buildings
Erol Kalkan, Neal S. Kwong
2014, Journal of Structural Engineering (140) 1-14
According to the regulatory building codes in the United States (e.g., 2010 California Building Code), at least two horizontal ground motion components are required for three-dimensional (3D) response history analysis (RHA) of building structures. For sites within 5 km of an active fault, these records should be rotated to...
Groundwater conditions in Utah, spring of 2014
Carole B. Burden
2014, Cooperative Investigations Report 55
This is the fifty-first in a series of annual reports that describe groundwater conditions in Utah. Reports in this series, published cooperatively by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Division of Water Rights, and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Quality, provide...
Reptilia: Testudines: Emydidae Graptemys gibbonsi - Pascagoula Map Turtle
Jeffrey E. Lovich, Joshua R. Ennen
2014, Book chapter, Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptile
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 the...
U-Pb zircon geochronology of plutonism in the northern Peninsular Ranges batholith, southern California: Implications for the Late Cretaceous tectonic evolution of southern California
Wayne R. Premo, Douglas M. Morton, Joseph L. Wooden, C. Mark Fanning
2014, Book chapter, Peninsular ranges Batholith, Baja California and southern California: Geological Society of America Memoir 211
Utilizing both sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) and conventional isotope dilution–thermal ionization mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS) methods, crystallization and/or emplacement ages have been obtained for a suite of Cretaceous intermediate-composition plutonic samples collected along a roughly E-W–trending traverse through the northern Peninsular Ranges batholith. Previously noted petrologic, mineralogic, and textural differences...
Probing reservoir-triggered earthquakes in Koyna, India, through scientific deep drilling
H. Gupta, Shailesh Nayak, William L. Ellsworth, Y. J. B. Rao, S. Rajan, B.K. Bansal, N. Purnachandra Rao, S. Roy, K. Arora, R. Mohan, V. M. Tiwari, H. V. S. Satyanarayana, P. K. Patro, D. Shashidhar, K. Mallika
2014, Scientific Drilling (18) 5-9
We report here the salient features of the recently concluded International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) workshop in Koyna, India. This workshop was a sequel to the earlier held ICDP workshop in Hyderabad and Koyna in 2011. A total of 49 experts (37 from India and 12 from 8...
Landsat Science Team meeting — First Landsat 8 evaluations
Thomas R. Loveland, Michael A. Wulder, James R. Irons
2014, The Earth Observer (26) 24-28
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)-NASA Landsat Science Team (LST) met at the USGS’ Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center near Sioux Falls, SD, from October 29-31, 2013. All meeting presentations can be downloaded from landsat.usgs.gov/science_LST_October_29_31_2013.php....
USGS48 Puerto Rico precipitation - A new isotopic reference material for δ2H and δ18O measurements of water
Haiping Qi, Tyler B. Coplen, Lauren V. Tarbox, Jennifer M. Lorenz, Martha A. Scholl
2014, Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies (50) 442-447
A new secondary isotopic reference material has been prepared from Puerto Rico precipitation, which was filtered, homogenised, loaded into glass ampoules, sealed with a torch, autoclaved to eliminate biological activity, and calibrated by dual-inlet isotope-ratio mass spectrometry. This isotopic reference material, designated as USGS48, is intended to be one of...
Resolving terrestrial ecosystem processes along a subgrid topographic gradient for an earth-system model
Z M Subin, Paul C.D. Milly, B N Sulman, Sergey Malyshev, E Shevliakova
2014, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (11) 8443-8492
Soil moisture is a crucial control on surface water and energy fluxes, vegetation, and soil carbon cycling. Earth-system models (ESMs) generally represent an areal-average soil-moisture state in gridcells at scales of 50–200 km and as a result are not able to capture the nonlinear effects of topographically-controlled subgrid heterogeneity in...
Ground-motion site effects from multimethod shear-wave velocity characterization at 16 seismograph stations deployed for aftershocks of the August 2011 Mineral, Virginia earthquake
William J. Stephenson, Jackson K. Odum, Daniel E. McNamara, Robert A. Williams, Stephen J Angster
2014, GSA Special Papers (509) 47-65
We characterize shear-wave velocity versus depth (Vs profile) at 16 portable seismograph sites through the epicentral region of the 2011 Mw 5.8 Mineral (Virginia, USA) earthquake to investigate ground-motion site effects in the area. We used a multimethod acquisition and analysis approach, where active-source horizontal shear (SH) wave reflection and refraction...
Post-breeding migration of Dutch-breeding black-tailed godwits: timing, routes, use of stopovers, and nonbreeding destinations
Jos C. E. W. Hooijmeijer, Nathan R. Senner, T. Lee Tibbitts, Robert E. Gill Jr., David C. Douglas, Leo W. Bruinzeel, Eddy Wymenga, Theunis Piersma
2014, Ardea (101) 141-152
Conservation of long-distance migratory shorebirds is complex because these species use habitats spread across continents and hemispheres, making identification of critical habitats and potential bottlenecks in the annual cycle especially difficult. The population of Black-tailed Godwits that breeds in Western Europe, Limosa limosa limosa, has declined precipitously over the past...
A comparison of resident fish assemblages in managed and unmanaged coastal wetlands in North Carolina and South Carolina
Kelly F. Robinson, Cecil A. Jennings
2014, Southeastern Naturalist (13) 237-260
The dominant fish species within impounded coastal wetlands in the southeastern US may be different from the species that dominate natural marshes. We tested the hypothesis that resident fish assemblages inhabiting impounded coastal wetlands in South Carolina would differ from resident assemblages in natural marshes of the southeastern United States....
Delineation of Tundra Swan Cygnus c. columbianus populations in North America: geographic boundaries and interchange
Craig R. Ely, William J.L. Sladen, Heather M. Wilson, Susan E. Savage, Kristine M. Sowl, Bill Henry, Mike Schwitters, James Snowden
2014, Wildfowl (64) 132-147
North American Tundra Swans Cygnus c. columbianus are composed of two wellrecognised populations: an Eastern Population (EP) that breeds across northern Canada and north of the Brooks Range in Alaska, which migrates to the eastern seaboard of the United States, and a Western Population (WP) that breeds in coastal regions of Alaska south of the Brooks...
U.S. Geological Survey Science for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative - 2013 Annual Report
Zachary H. Bowen, Cameron L. Aldridge, Patrick J. Anderson, Timothy J. Assal, Carleton R. Bern, Laura R Biewick, Gregory K. Boughton, Anna D. Chalfoun, Geneva W. Chong, Marie K. Dematatis, Bradley C. Fedy, Steven L. Garman, Steve Germaine, Matthew G. Hethcoat, Collin G. Homer, Christopher Huber, Matthew J. Kauffman, Natalie Latysh, Daniel J. Manier, Cynthia P. Melcher, Kirk A. Miller, Christopher J. Potter, Spencer Schell, Michael J. Sweat, Annika W. Walters, Anna B. Wilson
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1213
This is the sixth report produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) to detail annual activities conducted by USGS for addressing specific management needs identified by WLCI partners. In FY2013, there were 25 ongoing and new projects conducted by the USGS. These projects...
Observations from borehole dilution logging experiments in fractured crystalline rock under variable hydraulic conditions
Philip T. Harte, J. Alton Anderson, John Williams
2014, Conference Paper, Symposium on the application of geophysics to engineering and environmental problems 2014
Identifying hydraulically active fractures in low permeability, crystalline-bedrock aquifers requires a variety of geophysical and hydrogeophysical borehole tools and approaches. One such approach is Single Borehole Dilution Tests (SBDT), which in some low flow cases have been shown to provide greater resolution of borehole flow than other logging procedures, such...
Utilizing multi-sensor fire detections to map fires in the United States
Stephen M. Howard, Joshua J. Picotte, Michael Coan
2014, Conference Paper, The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XL-1,
In 2006, the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project began a cooperative effort between the US Forest Service (USFS) and the U.S.Geological Survey (USGS) to map and assess burn severity all large fires that have occurred in the United States since 1984. Using Landsat imagery, MTBS is mandated to...
Understanding the value of imperfect science from national estimates of bird mortality from window collisions
Craig S. Machtans, Wayne E. Thogmartin
2014, Condor (116) 3-7
The publication of a U.S. estimate of bird–window collisions by Loss et al. is an example of the somewhat contentious approach of using extrapolations to obtain large-scale estimates from small-scale studies. We review the approach by Loss et al. and other authors who have published papers on human-induced avian mortality...
Impact of increasing market access on a tropical small-scale fishery
Kara Stevens, Brian J. Irwin, Daniel Kramer, Gerald Urquhart
2014, Marine Policy (50) 46-52
Small-scale fisheries have historically been marginalized in management and policy investments, and they often remain under-reported in national economic and fisheries statistics. Even so, small-scale fisheries are not entirely buffered from the impacts of globalization, such as the introduction and expansion of markets. This study measures the long-term impact of...
