Phreatophytes under stress: transpiration and stomatal conductance of saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) in a high-salinity environment
Edward P. Glenn, Pamela L. Nagler, Kiyomi Morino, Kevin Hultine
2013, Plant and Soil (371) 655-672
Background and aims: We sought to understand the environmental constraints on an arid-zone riparian phreatophtye, saltcedar (Tamarix ramosissima and related species and hybrids), growing over a brackish aquifer along the Colorado River in the western U.S. Depth to groundwater, meteorological factors, salinity and soil hydraulic properties were compared at stress...
Hurricane Sandy science plan: coastal topographic and bathymetric data to support hurricane impact assessment and response
Jakob M. Stronko
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3099
Hurricane Sandy devastated some of the most heavily populated eastern coastal areas of the Nation. With a storm surge peaking at more than 19 feet, the powerful landscape-altering destruction of Hurricane Sandy is a stark reminder of why the Nation must become more resilient to coastal hazards. In response to...
Hurricane Sandy science plan: impacts of environmental quality and persisting contaminant exposure
Sarah A. Caskie
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3091
Hurricane Sandy devastated some of the most heavily populated eastern coastal areas of the Nation. With a storm surge peaking at more than 19 feet, the powerful landscape-altering destruction of Hurricane Sandy is a stark reminder of why the Nation must become more resilient to coastal hazards. In response to...
Hurricane Sandy science plan: impacts to coastal ecosystems, habitats, and fish and wildlife
Warren H. Campbell
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3096
Hurricane Sandy devastated some of the most heavily populated eastern coastal areas of the Nation. With a storm surge peaking at more than 19 feet, the powerful landscape-altering destruction of Hurricane Sandy is a stark reminder of why the Nation must become more resilient to coastal hazards. In response to...
Hurricane Sandy science plan: coastal impact assessments
Jakob M. Stronko
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3090
Hurricane Sandy devastated some of the most heavily populated eastern coastal areas of the Nation. With a storm surge peaking at more than 19 feet, the powerful landscape-altering destruction of Hurricane Sandy is a stark reminder of why the Nation must become more resilient to coastal hazards. In response to...
Hurricane Sandy science plan: impacts of storm surge, including disturbed estuarine and bay hydrology
Sarah A. Caskie
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3092
Hurricane Sandy devastated some of the most heavily populated eastern coastal areas of the Nation. With a storm surge peaking at more than 19 feet, the powerful landscape-altering destruction of Hurricane Sandy is a stark reminder of why the Nation must become more resilient to coastal hazards. In response to...
Hurricane Sandy science plan: New York
Clarice N. Ransom
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3089
Hurricane Sandy is a stark reminder of why the Nation must become more resilient to coastal hazards. More than one-half of the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of a coast, and this number is increasing. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is one of the largest providers of geologic and hydrologic...
Transient calibration of a groundwater-flow model of Chimacum Creek Basin and vicinity, Jefferson County, Washington: a supplement to Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5160
Joseph L. Jones, Kenneth H. Johnson
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1258
A steady-state groundwater-flow model described in Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5160, ”Numerical Simulation of the Groundwater-Flow System in Chimacum Creek Basin and Vicinity, Jefferson County, Washington” was developed to evaluate potential future impacts of growth and of water-management strategies on water resources in the Chimacum Creek Basin. This supplement to that...
Revised shallow and deep water-level and storage-volume changes in the Equus Beds Aquifer near Wichita, Kansas, predevelopment to 1993
Cristi V. Hansen, Jennifer L. Lanning-Rush, Andrew C. Ziegler
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5170
Beginning in the 1940s, the Wichita well field was developed in the Equus Beds aquifer in southwestern Harvey County and northwestern Sedgwick County to supply water to the city of Wichita. The decline of water levels in the aquifer was noted soon after the development of the Wichita well field...
Nitrogen cycling responses to mountain pine beetle disturbance in a high elevation whitebark pine ecosystem
Megan P. Keville, Sasha C. Reed, Cory C. Cleveland
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Ecological disturbances can significantly affect biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems, but the biogeochemical consequences of the extensive mountain pine beetle outbreak in high elevation whitebark pine (WbP) (Pinus albicaulis) ecosystems of western North America have not been previously investigated. Mountain pine beetle attack has driven widespread WbP mortality, which could...
Maturation characteristics and life history strategies of the Pacific Lamprey, Entosphenus tridentatus
Benjamin J. Clemens, Stan van de Wetering, Stacia A. Sower, Carl B. Schreck
2013, Canadian Journal of Zoology (91) 775-788
Lampreys (Petromyzontiformes) have persisted over millennia and now suffer a recent decline in abundance. Complex life histories may have factored in their persistence; anthropogenic perturbations in their demise. The complexity of life histories of lampreys is not understood, particularly for the anadromous Pacific lamprey, Entosphenus tridentatus Gairdner, 1836. Our goals...
Influence of monsoon-related riparian phenology on yellow-billed cuckoo habitat selection in Arizona
Cynthia S.A. Wallace, Miguel L. Villarreal, Charles van Riper III
2013, Journal of Biogeography (40) 2094-2107
Aim: The western yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus occidentalis), a Neotropical migrant bird, is facing steep population declines in its western breeding grounds owing primarily to loss of native habitat. The favoured esting habitat for the cuckoo in the south-western United States is low-elevation riparian forests and woodlands. Our aim...
Ecological thresholds as a basis for defining management triggers for National Park Service vital signs: case studies for dryland ecosystems
Matthew A. Bowker, Mark E. Miller, R. Travis Belote, Steven L. Garman
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1244
Threshold concepts are used in research and management of ecological systems to describe and interpret abrupt and persistent reorganization of ecosystem properties (Walker and Meyers, 2004; Groffman and others, 2006). Abrupt change, referred to as a threshold crossing, and the progression of reorganization can be triggered by one or more...
Influence of management and precipitation on carbon fluxes in greatplains grasslands
Matthew B. Rigge, Bruce K. Wylie, Li Zhang, Stephen P. Boyte
2013, Ecological Indicators (34) 590-599
Suitable management and sufficient precipitation on grasslands can provide carbon sinks. The net carbon accumulation of a site from the atmosphere, modeled as the Net Ecosystem Productivity (NEP), is a useful means to gauge carbon balance. Previous research has developed methods to integrate flux tower data with satellite biophysical datasets...
Estimating riparian and agricultural evapotranspiration by reference crop evapotranspiration and MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index
Pamela L. Nagler, Edward P. Glenn, Uyen Nguyen, Russell Scott, Tania Doody
2013, Remote Sensing (5) 3849-3871
Dryland river basins frequently support both irrigated agriculture and riparian vegetation and remote sensing methods are needed to monitor water use by both crops and natural vegetation in irrigation districts. We developed an algorithm for estimating actual evapotranspiration (ETa) based on the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from the Moderate Resolution...
InSAR Evidence for an active shallow thrust fault beneath the city of Spokane Washington, USA
Charles W. Wicks Jr., Craig S. Weaver, Paul Bodin, Brian L. Sherrod
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (118) 1268-1276
In 2001, a nearly five month long sequence of shallow, mostly small magnitude earthquakes occurred beneath the city of Spokane, a city with a population of about 200,000, in the state of Washington. During most of the sequence, the earthquakes were not well located because seismic instrumentation was sparse. Despite...
Foreshocks during the nucleation of stick-slip instability
Gregory C. McLaskey, Brian D. Kilgore
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (118) 2982-2997
We report on laboratory experiments which investigate interactions between aseismic slip, stress changes, and seismicity on a critically stressed fault during the nucleation of stick-slip instability. We monitor quasi-static and dynamic changes in local shear stress and fault slip with arrays of gages deployed along a simulated strike-slip fault (2 m...
Direct and indirect effects of land use on floral resources and flower-visiting insects across an urban landscape
K.C. Matteson, James B. Grace, E.S. Minor
2013, Oikos (122) 682-694
Although urban areas are often considered to have uniformly negative effects on biodiversity, cities are most accurately characterized as heterogeneous mosaics of buildings, streets, parks, and gardens that include both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ areas for wildlife. However, to date, few studies have evaluated how human impacts vary in direction and...
Irrigation trends in Kansas, 1991-2011
Joan F. Kenny, Kyle E. Juracek
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3094
This fact sheet examines trends in total reported irrigation water use and acres irrigated as well as irrigation water use by crop type and system type in Kansas for the years 1991 through 2011. During the 21-year period, total reported irrigation water diversions varied substantially from year to year as...
Survival of mountain quail translocated from two distinct source populations
Ronald J. Troy, Peter S. Coates, John W. Connelly, Gifford Gillette, David J. Delehanty
2013, Journal of Wildlife Management (77) 1031-1037
Translocation of mountain quail (Oreortyx pictus) to restore viable populations to their former range has become a common practice. Because differences in post-release vital rates between animals from multiple source populations has not been well studied, wildlife and land managers may arbitrarily choose the source population or base the source...
Pathogen exposure and blood chemistry in the Washington population of northern sea otters (Enhydra lutris kenyoni)
C. LeAnn White, Krysten L. Schuler, Nancy J. Thomas, Julie L. Webb, Jeremiah T. Saliki, S. Ip, J. P. Dubey, Elizabeth R. Frame
2013, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (49) 867-899
Northern sea otters (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) from Washington State, United States were evaluated in 2011 to determine health status and pathogen exposure. Antibodies to Brucella spp. (10%) and influenza A virus (23%) were detected for the first time in this population in 2011. Changes in clinical pathology values (serum chemistries),...
Low copper and high manganese levels in prion protein plaques
Christopher J. Johnson, P.U.P.A. Gilbert, Mike Abrecth, Katherine L. Baldwin, Robin E. Russell, Joel A. Pedersen, Debbie McKenzie
2013, Viruses (5) 654-662
Accumulation of aggregates rich in an abnormally folded form of the prion protein characterize the neurodegeneration caused by transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). The molecular triggers of plaque formation and neurodegeneration remain unknown, but analyses of TSE-infected brain homogenates and preparations enriched for abnormal prion protein suggest that reduced levels of...
Can reliable sage-grouse lek counts be obtained using aerial infrared technology
Gifford L. Gillette, Peter S. Coates, Steven Petersen, John P. Romero
2013, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (4)
More effective methods for counting greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) are needed to better assess population trends through enumeration or location of new leks. We describe an aerial infrared technique for conducting sage-grouse lek counts and compare this method with conventional ground-based lek count methods. During the breeding period in 2010...
Chuckwalla Valley multiple-well monitoring site, Chuckwalla Valley, Riverside County
Rhett R. Everett
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1221
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, is evaluating the geohydrology and water availability of the Chuckwalla Valley, California. As part of this evaluation, the USGS installed the Chuckwalla Valley multiple-well monitoring site (CWV1) in the southeastern portion of the Chuckwalla Basin. Data collected...
A computational- And storage-cloud for integration of biodiversity collections
A. Matsunaga, A. Thompson, R. J. Figueiredo, C.C Germain-Aubrey, M. Collins, R.S Beeman, B.J. Macfadden, G. Riccardi, P.S Soltis, L. M. Page, J.A.B Fortes
2013, Conference Paper, Proceedings - IEEE 9th International Conference on e-Science, e-Science 2013
A core mission of the Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) project is the building and deployment of a cloud computing environment customized to support the digitization workflow and integration of data from all U.S. nonfederal biocollections. iDigBio chose to use cloud computing technologies to deliver a cyberinfrastructure that is flexible, agile,...
