The SAFRR (Science Application for Risk Reduction) Tsunami Scenario
Stephanie L. Ross, Lucile M. Jones, editor(s)
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1170
The Science Application for Risk Reduction (SAFRR) tsunami scenario depicts a hypothetical but plausible tsunami created by an earthquake offshore from the Alaska Peninsula and its impacts on the California coast. The tsunami scenario is a collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the California Geological Survey (CGS), the California...
The SAFRR tsunami scenario: improving resilience for California
Stephanie L. Ross, Lucile M. Jones, Kevin H. Miller, Keith A. Porter, Anne Wein, Rick I. Wilson, Bohyun Bahng, Aggeliki Barberopoulou, Jose C. Borrero, Deborah M. Brosnan, John T. Bwarie, Eric L. Geist, Laurie A. Johnson, Stephen H. Kirby, William R. Knight, Kate Long, Patrick Lynett, Carl E. Mortensen, Dmitry J. Nicolsky, Suzanne C. Perry, Geoffrey S. Plumlee, Charles R. Real, Kenneth Ryan, Elena Suleimani, Hong Kie Thio, Vasily V. Titov, Paul M. Whitmore, Nathan J. Wood
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3081
On March 11, 2011, the Tohoku earthquake and the resulting tsunami devastated Japan with a disaster of unfathomable proportions. Five thousand miles away, the waves from Tohoku caused $50 to 100 million in damages in California. Although this pales in comparison to the loss of lives and property in Japan,...
Using broad landscape level features to predict redd densities of steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Methow River watershed, Washington
Jason G. Romine, Russell W. Perry, Patrick J. Connolly
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1232
We used broad-scale landscape feature variables to model redd densities of spring Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in the Methow River watershed. Redd densities were estimated from redd counts conducted from 2005 to 2007 and 2009 for steelhead trout and 2005 to 2009 for spring Chinook...
Estimating ecosystem carbon stocks at Redwood National and State Parks
Phillip J. van Mantgem, Mary Ann Madej, Joseph Seney, Janelle Deshais
2013, Park Science (30) 20-26
Accounting for ecosystem carbon is increasingly important for park managers. In this case study we present our efforts to estimate carbon stocks and the effects of management on carbon stocks for Redwood National and State Parks in northern California. Using currently available information, we estimate that on average these parks’...
Mobile laser scanning applied to the earth sciences
Benjamin A. Brooks, Craig Glennie, Kenneth W. Hudnut, Todd Ericksen, Darren Hauser
2013, Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union (94) 313-315
Lidar (light detection and ranging), a method by which the precise time of flight of emitted pulses of laser energy is measured and converted to distance for reflective targets, has helped scientists make topographic maps of Earth's surface at scales as fine as centimeters. These maps have allowed the discovery...
Morphological distinctiveness of Javan Tupaia hypochrysa (Scandentia, Tupaiidae)
Eric J. Sargis, Neal Woodman, Natalie C. Morningstar, Aspen T. Reese, Link E. Olson
2013, Journal of Mammalogy (94) 938-947
The common treeshrew, Tupaia glis, represents a species complex with a complicated taxonomic history. It is distributed mostly south of the Isthmus of Kra on the Malay Peninsula and surrounding islands. In our recent revision of a portion of this species complex, we did not fully assess the population from...
Golden eagle population trends in the western United States: 1968-2010
Brian A. Millsap, Guthrie S. Zimmerman, John R. Sauer, Ryan M. Nielson, Mark Otto, Emily Bjerre, Robert K. Murphy
2013, Journal of Wildlife Management (77) 1436-1448
In 2009, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service promulgated permit regulations for the unintentional lethal take (anthropogenic mortality) and disturbance of golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos). Accurate population trend and size information for golden eagles are needed so agency biologists can make informed decisions when eagle take permits are requested....
The impact of sea-level rise on organic matter decay rates in Chesapeake Bay brackish tidal marshes
M.L. Kirwanm, J.A. Langley, Gleen R. Guntenspergen, J.P. Megonigal
2013, Biogeosciences (10) 1869-1876
The balance between organic matter production and decay determines how fast coastal wetlands accumulate soil organic matter. Despite the importance of soil organic matter accumulation rates in influencing marsh elevation and resistance to sea-level rise, relatively little is known about how decomposition rates will respond to sea-level rise. Here, we...
Remote detection of magmatic water in Bullialdus crater on the Moon
Rachel L. Klima, John Cahill, Justin Hagerty, David Lawrence
2013, Nature Geoscience (6) 737-741
Once considered dry compared with Earth, laboratory analyses of igneous components of lunar samples have suggested that the Moon’s interior is not entirely anhydrous. Water and hydroxyl have also been detected from orbit on the lunar surface, but these have been attributed to nonindigenous sources, such as interactions with the...
Vegetation inventory, mapping, and classification report, Fort Bowie National Historic Site
Sarah Studd, Elizabeth Fallon, Laura Crumbacher, Sam Drake, Miguel L. Villarreal
2013, Natural Resource Report NPS/SODN/NRR—2013/673
A vegetation mapping and characterization effort was conducted at Fort Bowie National Historic Site in 2008-10 by the Sonoran Desert Network office in collaboration with researchers from the Office of Arid lands studies, Remote Sensing Center at the University of Arizona. This vegetation mapping effort was completed under the National...
Comparative embryotoxicity of a pentabrominated diphenyl ether mixture to common terns (Sterna hirundo) and American kestrels (Falco sparverius)
Barnett A. Rattner, Rebecca S. Lazarus, Gary H. Heinz, Natalie K. Karouna-Reiner, Sandra L. Schultz, Robert C. Hale
2013, Chemosphere (93) 441-447
Concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in Forster’s tern (Sterna forsteri) eggs from San Francisco Bay have been reported to range up to 63 μg g−1 lipid weight. This value exceeds the lowest-observed-adverse-effect level (1.8 μg g−1 egg wet weight; ∼32 μg−1 lipid weight) reported in an embryotoxicity study with...
Social learning of migratory performance
Thomas Mueller, Robert B. O’Hara, Sarah J. Converse, Richard P. Urbanek, William F. Fagan
2013, Science (341) 999-1002
Successful bird migration can depend on individual learning, social learning, and innate navigation programs. Using 8 years of data on migrating whooping cranes, we were able to partition genetic and socially learned aspects of migration. Specifically, we analyzed data from a reintroduced population wherein all birds were captive bred and...
2013 Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Forecast
Donald Scavia, Mary Anne Evans, Dan Obenour
2013, Report
The Gulf of Mexico annual summer hypoxia forecasts are based on average May total nitrogen loads from the Mississippi River basin for that year. The load estimate, recently released by USGS, is 7,316 metric tons per day. Based on that estimate, we predict the area of this summer’s hypoxic...
Too risky to settle: avian community structure changes in response to perceived predation risk on adults and offspring
Fangyuan Hua, Robert J. Fletcher, Kathryn E. Sieving, Robert M. Dorazio
2013, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (280)
Predation risk is widely hypothesized as an important force structuring communities, but this potential force is rarely tested experimentally, particularly in terrestrial vertebrate communities. How animals respond to predation risk is generally considered predictable from species life-history and natural-history traits, but rigorous tests of these predictions remain scarce. We report...
Candidate soil indicators for monitoring the progress of constructed wetlands toward a natural state: a statistical approach
Martin A. Stapanian, Jean V. Adams, M. Siobhan Fennessy, John Mack, Mick Micacchion
2013, Wetlands (33) 1083-1094
A persistent question among ecologists and environmental managers is whether constructed wetlands are structurally or functionally equivalent to naturally occurring wetlands. We examined 19 variables collected from 10 constructed and nine natural emergent wetlands in Ohio, USA. Our primary objective was to identify candidate indicators of wetland...
Continuous gravity measurements reveal a low-density lava lake at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i
Daniele Carbone, Michael P. Poland, Matthew R. Patrick, Tim R. Orr
2013, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (376) 178-185
On 5 March 2011, the lava lake within the summit eruptive vent at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, began to drain as magma withdrew to feed a dike intrusion and fissure eruption on the volcanoʼs east rift zone. The draining was monitored by a variety of continuous geological and geophysical measurements, including...
Book review: The requisite reference for the study of Sirenia
Cathy A. Beck
2013, Journal of Mammalian Evolution (20) 273-274
Sirenians often are given little or no notice in texts on marine mammals; whales, dolphins, and seals are what come to mind for most when a marine mammal is imagined. An order of only four extant species, the Sirenia is indeed the “other” frequently overlooked group of marine mammals. Dugongs...
Spatial capture-recapture
J. Andrew Royle, Richard B. Chandler, Rahel Sollmann, Beth Gardner
2013, Book
Spatial Capture-Recapture provides a revolutionary extension of traditional capture-recapture methods for studying animal populations using data from live trapping, camera trapping, DNA sampling, acoustic sampling, and related field methods. This book is a conceptual and methodological synthesis of spatial capture-recapture modeling. As a comprehensive how-to manual, this reference contains...
The SAFRR Tsunami Scenario
K. Porter, Lucile M. Jones, Stephanie L. Ross, J. Borrero, J. Bwarie, D. Dykstra, Eric L. Geist, L. Johnson, Stephen H. Kirby, K. Long, P. Lynett, K. Miller, Carl E. Mortensen, S. Perry, G. Plumlee, C. Real, L. Ritchie, C. Scawthorn, H.K. Thio, Anne Wein, P. Whitmore, R. Wilson, Nathan J. Wood
Bruce I. Ostbo, Don Oates, editor(s)
2013, Conference Paper, Ports 2013: Success Through Diversification
The U.S. Geological Survey and several partners operate a program called Science Application for Risk Reduction (SAFRR) that produces (among other things) emergency planning scenarios for natural disasters. The scenarios show how science can be used to enhance community resiliency. The SAFRR Tsunami Scenario describes potential impacts of a hypothetical,...
Geomagnetic referencing--the real-time compass for directional drillers
Andrew Buchanan, Carol Finn, Jeffrey J. Love, E. William Worthington, Fraser Lawson, Stefan Maus, Shola Okewunmi, Benny Poedjono
2013, Oilfield Review (25) 32-47
To pinpoint the location and direction of a wellborne, directional driller rely on measurements from accelerometers, magnetometer and gyroscopes. In the past, high-accuracy guidance methods required a halt in drilling to obtain directional measurements. Advances in geomagnetic referencing now allow companies to use real-time data acquired during drilling to accurately...
Global change and mercury
David P. Krabbenhoft, Elsie M. Sunderland
2013, Science (341) 1457-1458
More than 140 nations recently agreed to a legally binding treaty on reductions in human uses and releases of mercury that will be signed in October of this year. This follows the 2011 rule in the United States that for the first time regulates mercury emissions from electricity-generating utilities. Several...
The Anemomilos prediction methodology for Dst
W. K. Tobiska, D. Knipp, W. J. Burke, D. Bouwer, J. Bailey, D. Odstrcil, M. P. Hagan, J. Gannon, B. R. Bowman
2013, Space Weather (11) 490-508
This paper describes new capabilities for operational geomagnetic Disturbance storm time (Dst) index forecasts. We present a data‐driven, deterministic algorithm called Anemomilos for forecasting Dst out to a maximum of 6 days for large, medium, and small storms, depending upon transit time to the Earth. This capability is used for operational satellite...
Evidence that acidification-induced declines in plant diversity and productivity are mediated by changes in below-ground communities and soil properties in a semi-arid steppe
Dima Chen, Zhichun Lan, Xue Bai, James B. Grace, Yongfei Bai
2013, Journal of Ecology (101) 1322-1334
Anthropogenic acid deposition–induced soil acidification is one of the major threats to biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and services. Few studies, however, have explored in detail how above-ground changes in plant species richness and productivity resulting from soil acidification are mediated by effects on below-ground biota and soil properties. To increase our understanding...
Mitigating the effects of landscape development on streams in urbanizing watersheds
Dianna M. Hogan, S. Taylor Jarnagin, John V. Loperfido, Keith Van Ness
2013, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (50) 163-178
This collaborative study examined urbanization and impacts on area streams while using the best available sediment and erosion control (S&EC) practices in developing watersheds in Maryland, United States. During conversion of the agricultural and forested watersheds to urban land use, land surface topography was graded and vegetation was removed creating...
Predicting vertically-nonsequential wetting patterns with a source-responsive model
John R. Nimmo, Lara Mitchell
2013, Vadose Zone Journal (12)
Water infiltrating into soil of natural structure often causes wetting patterns that do not develop in an orderly sequence. Because traditional unsaturated flow models represent a water advance that proceeds sequentially, they fail to predict irregular development of water distribution. In the source-responsive model, a diffuse domain (D) represents flow...
