County-level estimates of nitrogen and phosphorus from animal manure for the conterminous United States, 2002
David K. Mueller, Jo Ann M. Gronberg
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1065
County-level nitrogen and phosphorus inputs from animal manure for the conterminous United States for 2002 were estimated from animal populations from the 2002 Census of Agriculture by using methods described in U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2006–5012. These estimates of nitrogen and phosphorus from animal manure were compiled in...
A test of critical thresholds and their indicators in a desertification-prone ecosystem: more resilience than we thought
Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Michael C. Duniway, Darren K. James, Laura M. Burkett, Kris M. Havstad
2013, Ecology Letters (16) 339-345
Theoretical models predict that drylands can cross critical thresholds, but experimental manipulations to evaluate them are non-existent. We used a long-term (13-year) pulse-perturbation experiment featuring heavy grazing and shrub removal to determine if critical thresholds and their determinants can be demonstrated in Chihuahuan Desert grasslands. We asked if cover values...
Forecasting the impact of storm waves and sea-level rise on Midway Atoll and Laysan Island within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument—a comparison of passive versus dynamic inundation models
Curt D. Storlazzi, Paul Berkowitz, Michelle H. Reynolds, Joshua B. Logan
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1069
Two inundation events in 2011 underscored the potential for elevated water levels to damage infrastructure and affect terrestrial ecosystems on the low-lying Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. The goal of this study was to compare passive "bathtub" inundation models based on geographic information systems (GIS) to...
Methods, quality assurance, and data for assessing atmospheric deposition of pesticides in the Central Valley of California
Celia Zamora, Michael S. Majewski, William T. Foreman
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5023
The U.S. Geological Survey monitored atmospheric deposition of pesticides in the Central Valley of California during two studies in 2001 and 2002–04. The 2001 study sampled wet deposition (rain) and storm-drain runoff in the Modesto, California, area during the orchard dormant-spray season to examine the contribution of pesticide concentrations to...
A quantitative assessment of the conservation benefits of the Wetlands Reserve Program to amphibians
J. Hardin Waddle, Brad M. Glorioso, Stephen P. Faulkner
2013, Restoration Ecology (21) 200-206
The Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) originally consisted of nearly contiguous bottomland hardwood (BLH) forest encompassing approximately 10 million hectares. Currently, only 20–25% of the historical BLH forests remain in small patches fragmented by agricultural lands. The Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) was established to restore and protect the functions and values...
Use of surrogate technologies to estimate suspended sediment in the Clearwater River, Idaho, and Snake River, Washington, 2008-10
Molly S. Wood, Gregg N. Teasdale
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5052
Elevated levels of fluvial sediment can reduce the biological productivity of aquatic systems, impair freshwater quality, decrease reservoir storage capacity, and decrease the capacity of hydraulic structures. The need to measure fluvial sediment has led to the development of sediment surrogate technologies, particularly in locations where streamflow alone is not...
Emergent sandbar dynamics in the lower Platte River in eastern Nebraska: methods and results of pilot study, 2011
Jason S. Alexander, Devin M. Schultze, Ronald B. Zelt
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5031
The lower Platte River corridor provides important habitats for two State- and federally listed bird species: the interior least tern (terns; Sternula antillarum athallassos) and the piping plover (plovers; Charadrius melodus). However, many of the natural morphological and hydrological characteristics of the Platte River have been altered substantially by water...
Avian influenza in shorebirds: experimental infection of ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres) with avian influenza virus
Jeffrey S. Hall, Scott Krauss, J. Christian Franson, Joshua L. TeSlaa, Sean W. Nashold, David E. Stallknecht, Richard J. Webby, Robert G. Webster
2013, Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses (7) 85-92
Background: Low pathogenic avian influenza viruses (LPAIV) have been reported in shorebirds, especially at Delaware Bay, USA, during spring migration. However, data on patterns of virus excretion, minimal infectious doses, and clinical outcome are lacking. The ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres) is the shorebird species with the highest prevalence of influenza...
Characterizing the thermal suitability of instream habitat for salmonids: A cautionary example from the Rocky Mountains
Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Seth J. Wegner, Daniel J. Isaak, Jeffrey L. Kershner
2013, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (142) 793-801
Understanding a species’ thermal niche is becoming increasingly important for management and conservation within the context of global climate change, yet there have been surprisingly few efforts to compare assessments of a species’ thermal niche across methods. To address this uncertainty, we evaluated the differences in model performance and interpretations...
Adaptive management of flows from dams: a win-win framework for water users
Elise R. Irwin
2013, Book chapter, Auburn Speaks: On Water
Alabama is blessed with more than 77,000 miles of rivers and streams that carve through the terrestrial landscape of the state. When you think about it, every road you drive on crosses a river and many of our major cities are located on the bank of a river....
Association of toxin-producing Clostridium botulinum with the macroalga Cladophora in the Great Lakes
Chan Lan Chun, Urs Ochsner, Muruleedhara N. Byappanahalli, Richard L. Whitman, William H. Tepp, Guangyun Lin, Eric A. Johnson, Julie Peller, Michael J. Sadowsky
2013, Environmental Science & Technology (47) 2587-2594
Avian botulism, a paralytic disease of birds, often occurs on a yearly cycle and is increasingly becoming more common in the Great Lakes. Outbreaks are caused by bird ingestion of neurotoxins produced by Clostridium botulinum, a spore-forming, gram-positive, anaerobe. The nuisance, macrophytic, green alga Cladophora (Chlorophyta; mostly Cladophora glomerata L.)...
Map of assessed shale gas in the United States, 2012
U.S. Geological Survey National Assessment of Oil and Gas Resources Team, Laura R. H. Biewick (compiler)
2013, Data Series 69-Z
The U.S. Geological Survey has compiled a map of shale-gas assessments in the United States that were completed by 2012 as part of the National Assessment of Oil and Gas Project. Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey quantitatively estimated potential volumes of undiscovered gas within shale-gas assessment...
Effects of past and future groundwater development on the hydrologic system of Verde Valley, Arizona
Bradley D. Garner, D. R. Pool
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3016
Communities in central Arizona’s Verde Valley must manage limited water supplies in the face of rapidly growing populations. Developing groundwater resources to meet human needs has raised questions about the effects of groundwater withdrawals by pumping on the area’s rivers and streams, particularly the Verde River. U.S. Geological Survey hydrologists...
Assessment of spectral band impact on intercalibration over desert sites using simulation based on EO-1 Hyperion data
P. Henry, G. Chander, B. Fougnie, C. Thomas, Xiaoxiong Xiong
2013, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (51) 1297-1308
Since the beginning of the 1990s, stable desert sites have been used for the calibration monitoring of many different sensors. Many attempts at sensor intercalibration have been also conducted using these stable desert sites. As a result, site characterization techniques and the quality of intercalibration techniques have gradually improved over...
Human effects on the hydrologic system of the Verde Valley, central Arizona, 1910–2005 and 2005–2110, using a regional groundwater flow model
Bradley D. Garner, D. R. Pool, Fred D. Tillman, Brandon T. Forbes
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5029
Water budgets were developed for the Verde Valley of central Arizona in order to evaluate the degree to which human stresses have affected the hydrologic system and might affect it in the future. The Verde Valley is a portion of central Arizona wherein concerns have been raised about water availability,...
Simplified stratigraphic cross sections of the Eocene Green River Formation in the Piceance Basin, northwestern Colorado
John D. Dietrich, Ronald C. Johnson
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1012
Thirteen stratigraphic cross sections of the Eocene Green River Formation in the Piceance Basin of northwestern Colorado are presented in this report. Originally published in a much larger and more detailed form by Self and others (2010), they are shown here in simplified, page-size versions that are easily accessed and...
Automated cloud and shadow detection and filling using two-date Landsat imagery in the United States
Suming Jin, Collin G. Homer, Limin Yang, George Xian, Joyce Fry, Patrick Danielson, Philip A. Townsend
2013, International Journal of Remote Sensing (34) 1540-1560
A simple, efficient, and practical approach for detecting cloud and shadow areas in satellite imagery and restoring them with clean pixel values has been developed. Cloud and shadow areas are detected using spectral information from the blue, shortwave infrared, and thermal infrared bands of Landsat Thematic Mapper or Enhanced Thematic...
Pesticides in Wyoming Groundwater, 2008-10
Cheryl A. Eddy-Miller, Timothy T. Bartos, Michelle L. Taylor
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5064
Groundwater samples were collected from 296 wells during 1995-2006 as part of a baseline study of pesticides in Wyoming groundwater. In 2009, a previous report summarized the results of the baseline sampling and the statistical evaluation of the occurrence of pesticides in relation to selected natural and anthropogenic (human-related) characteristics....
Preliminary estimates of the quantities of rare-earth elements contained in selected products and in imports of semimanufactured products to the United States, 2010
Donald I. Bleiwas, Joseph Gambogi
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1072
Rare-earth elements (REEs) are contained in a wide range of products of economic and strategic importance to the Nation. The REEs may or may not represent a significant component of that product by mass, value, or volume; however, in many cases, the embedded REEs are critical for the device’s function....
An isotope-dilution standard GC/MS/MS method for steroid hormones in water
William T. Foreman, James L. Gray, Rhiannon C. ReVello, Chris E. Lindley, Scott A. Losche
2013, Book chapter, Evaluating Veterinary Pharmaceutical Behavior in the Environment: ACS Symposium Series
An isotope-dilution quantification method was developed for 20 natural and synthetic steroid hormones and additional compounds in filtered and unfiltered water. Deuterium- or carbon-13-labeled isotope-dilution standards (IDSs) are added to the water sample, which is passed through an octadecylsilyl solid-phase extraction (SPE) disk. Following extract cleanup using Florisil SPE, method...
An evaluation of liquid ammonia (ammonium hydroxide) as a candidate piscicide
David L. Ward, R. Morton-Starner, Shaula J. Hedwall
2013, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (33) 400-405
Eradication of populations of nonnative aquatic species for the purpose of reintroducing native fish is often difficult because very few effective tools are available for removing aquatic organisms. This creates the need to evaluate new chemicals that could be used as management tools for native fish conservation. Ammonia is a...
Absolute radiometric calibration of Landsat using a pseudo invariant calibration site
D. Helder, K. J. Thome, N. Mishra, G. Chander, Xiaoxiong Xiong, A. Angal, Tae-young Choi
2013, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (51) 1360-1369
Pseudo invariant calibration sites (PICS) have been used for on-orbit radiometric trending of optical satellite systems for more than 15 years. This approach to vicarious calibration has demonstrated a high degree of reliability and repeatability at the level of 1-3% depending on the site, spectral channel, and imaging geometries. A...
Shallow repeating seismic events under an alpine glacier at Mount Rainier, Washington, USA
Weston A. Thelen, Kate E. Allstadt, Silvio De Angelis, Stephen D. Malone, Seth C. Moran, John Vidale
2013, Journal of Glaciology (59) 345-356
We observed several swarms of repeating low-frequency (1–5 Hz) seismic events during a 3 week period in May–June 2010, near the summit of Mount Rainier, Washington, USA, that likely were a result of stick–slip motion at the base of alpine glaciers. The dominant set of repeating events ('multiplets') featured >4000...
Fish assemblage relationships with physical characteristics and presence of dams in three eastern Iowa rivers
Clay Pierce, Nicholas L. Ahrens, Anna K. Loan-Wilsey, Gregory A. Simmons, Gregory T. Gelwicks
2013, River Research and Applications (30) 427-441
Fish assemblages in rivers of the Midwestern United States are an important component of the region's natural resources and biodiversity. We characterized the physical environment and presence of dams in a series of reaches in three eastern Iowa rivers tributary to the Mississippi River and related these characteristics to the...
User’s manual for the National Water Information System of the U.S. Geological Survey: Water-Quality System
David H. Dupré, Jonathon C. Scott, Melanie L. Clark, Michael G. Canova, Yvonne E. Stoker
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1054
This user documentation is designed to be a reference for the quality of water (QW) programs within the National Water Information System (NWIS). If you are a new user, the “Introduction” and “Getting Started” sections may be the right place for you to start. If you are an experienced user,...
