Identification and evaluation of scientific uncertainties related to fish and aquatic resources in the Colorado River, Grand Canyon - summary and interpretation of an expert-elicitation questionnaire
Theodore A. Kennedy
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5027
Identifying areas of scientific uncertainty is a critical step in the adaptive management process (Walters, 1986; Runge, Converse, and Lyons, 2011). To identify key areas of scientific uncertainty regarding biologic resources of importance to the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program, the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center (GCMRC) convened...
Phragmites australis expansion in a restored brackish marsh: documentation at different time scales
Rebecca J. Howard, Theodore D. Turluck
2013, Wetlands (33) 207-215
Invasive plants in restored habitats can alter the system such that restoration goals are not met. Non-native lineages of Phragmites australis (hereafter Phragmites) are invasive in North American wetlands, and their presence can be problematic because of decreased species diversity and altered physicochemical processes. Phragmites is a challenging species for...
Assessment of historical surface-water quality data in southwestern Colorado, 1990-2005
Lisa D. Miller, Keelin R. Schaffrath, Joshua I. Linard
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5255
The spatial and temporal distribution of selected physical and chemical surface-water-quality characteristics were analyzed at stream sites throughout the Dolores and San Juan River Basins in southwestern Colorado using historical data collected from 1990 through 2005 by various local, State, Tribal, and Federal agencies. Overall, streams throughout the study area...
Behavior and dam passage of juvenile Chinook salmon at Cougar Reservoir and Dam, Oregon, March 2011 - February 2012
John W. Beeman, Hal C. Hansel, Amy C. Hansen, Philip V. Haner, Jamie M. Sprando, Collin D. Smith, Scott D. Evans, Tyson W. Hatton
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1079
The movements and dam passage of juvenile Chinook salmon implanted with acoustic transmitters and passive integrated transponder tags were studied at Cougar Reservoir and Dam, near Springfield, Oregon. The purpose of the study was to provide information to aid with decisions about potential alternatives for improving downstream passage conditions for...
Whole-coal versus ash basis in coal geochemistry: a mathematical approach to consistent interpretations
Nicholas J. Geboy, Mark A. Engle, James C. Hower
2013, International Journal of Coal Geology (113) 41-49
Several standard methods require coal to be ashed prior to geochemical analysis. Researchers, however, are commonly interested in the compositional nature of the whole-coal, not its ash. Coal geochemical data for any given sample can, therefore, be reported in the ash basis on which it is analyzed or the whole-coal...
From the Island of the Blue Dolphins: A unique 19th century cache feature from San Nicolas Island, California
Jon M. Erlandson, Lisa Thomas-Barnett, Rene L. Vellanoweth, Steven J. Schwartz, Daniel R. Muhs
2013, Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology (8) 66-78
A cache feature salvaged from an eroding sea cliff on San Nicolas Island produced two redwood boxes containing more than 200 artifacts of Nicoleño, Native Alaskan, and Euro-American origin. Outside the boxes were four asphaltum-coated baskets, abalone shells, a sandstone dish, and a hafted stone knife. The boxes, made from...
Impacts of tree rows on grassland birds & potential nest predators: A removal experiment
Kevin S. Ellison, Christine Ribic, David W. Sample, Megan J. Fawcett, John D. Dadisman
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Globally, grasslands and the wildlife that inhabit them are widely imperiled. Encroachment by shrubs and trees has widely impacted grasslands in the past 150 years. In North America, most grassland birds avoid nesting near woody vegetation. Because woody vegetation fragments grasslands and potential nest predator diversity and abundance is often...
Water-quality conditions, and constituent loads and yields in the Cambridge drinking-water source area, Massachusetts, water years 2005–07
Kirk P. Smith
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5039
The source water area for the drinking-water supply of the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, encompasses major transportation corridors, as well as large areas of light industrial, commercial, and residential land use. Because of ongoing development in the drinking-water source area, the Cambridge water supply has the potential to be affected...
Comparison of aliphatic hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenylethers, and organochlorine pesticides in Pacific sanddab (Citharichthys sordidus) from offshore oil platforms and natural reefs along the California coast
Robert W. Gale, Michael J. Tanner, Milton S. Love, Mary M. Nishimoto, Donna M. Schroeder
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1046
Recently, the relative exposure of Pacific sanddab (Citharichthys sordidus) to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at oil-production platforms was reported, indicating negligible exposure to PAHs and no discernible differences between exposures at platforms and nearby natural areas sites. In this report, the potential for chronic PAH exposure in fish is reported,...
Characteristics of sediment transport at selected sites along the Missouri River during the high-flow conditions of 2011
Joel M. Galloway, Dave L. Rus, Jason S. Alexander
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5006
During 2011, many tributaries in the Missouri River Basin experienced near record peak streamflow and caused flood damage to many communities along much of the Missouri River from Montana to the confluence with the Mississippi River. The large runoff event in 2011 provided an opportunity to examine characteristics of sediment...
Using the KINEROS2 modeling framework to evaluate the increase in storm runoff from residential development in a semi-arid environment
Jeffrey R. Kennedy, David C. Goodrich, Carl L. Unkrich
2013, Journal of Hydrologic Engineering (18) 698-706
The increase in runoff from urbanization is well known; one extreme example comes from a 13 hectare residential neighborhood in southeast Arizona where runoff was 27 times greater than an adjacent grassland watershed over a forty‐month period from 2005 to 2008. Rainfall‐runoff modeling using the newly‐described KINEROS2 urban element and...
Energy map of southwestern Wyoming - Energy data archived, organized, integrated, and accessible
Laura Biewick, Nicholas R. Jones, Anna B. Wilson
2013, General Information Product 145
The Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI) focuses on conserving world-class wildlife resources while facilitating responsible energy development in southwestern Wyoming. To further advance the objectives of the WLCI long-term, science-based effort, a comprehensive inventory of energy resource and production data is being published in two parts. Energy maps, data, documentation...
Review: groundwater in Alaska (USA)
J.B. Callegary, C.P. Kikuchi, Joshua C. Koch, M. R. Lilly, S. A. Leake
2013, Hydrogeology Journal (21) 25-39
Groundwater in the US state of Alaska is critical to both humans and ecosystems. Interactions among physiography, ecology, geology, and current and past climate have largely determined the location and properties of aquifers as well as the timing and magnitude of fluxes to, from, and within the groundwater system. The...
Paleoseismology of a possible fault scarp in Wenas Valley, central Washington
Brian L. Sherrod, Elizabeth A. Barnett, Nichole Knepprath, Franklin F. Foit Jr.
2013, Scientific Investigations Map 3239
In October 2009, two trenches excavated across an 11-kilometer-long scarp at Wenas Valley in central Washington exposed evidence for late Quaternary deformation. Lidar imagery of the Wenas Valley illuminated the west-northwest-trending, 2- to 8-meter-high scarp as it bisected alluvial fans developed at the mouths of canyons along the south side...
The impact of medium architecture of alluvial settings on non-Fickian transport
Yong Zhang, Christopher T. Green, Graham E. Fogg
2013, Advances in Water Resources (54) 78-99
The influence of heterogeneous architecture of alluvial aquifers on non-Fickian transport is explored using the Monte Carlo approach. More than two thousand high-resolution hydrofacies models representing seven groups of alluvial settings are built to test the effects of varying facies proportions, mean length and its anisotropy ratio, juxtapositional tendencies, and...
Influence of drought on salamander occupancy of isolated wetlands on the southeastern Coastal Plain of the United States
Susan C. Walls, William J. Barichivich, Mary E. Brown, David E. Scott, Blake R. Hossack
2013, Wetlands (33) 345-354
In the southeastern U.S., changes in temperature and precipitation over the last three decades have been the most dramatic in winter and spring seasons. Continuation of these trends could negatively impact pond-breeding amphibians, especially those that rely on winter and spring rains to fill seasonal wetlands, trigger breeding, and ensure...
Structure and tectonic evolution of the eastern Española Basin, Rio Grande rift, north-central New Mexico
Daniel Koning, V. J. Grauch, Sean D. Connell, J. Ferguson, William McIntosh, Janet L. Slate, Elmira Wan, W.S. Baldridge
2013, Book chapter, New perspectives on Rio Grande Rift Basins: From tectonics to groundwater
We describe the structure of the eastern Española Basin and use stratigraphic and stratal attitude data to interpret its tectonic development. This area consists of a west-dipping half graben in the northern Rio Grande rift that includes several intrabasinal grabens, faults, and folds. The Embudo–Santa Clara–Pajarito fault system, a collection...
Selection of hyperspectral narrowbands (HNBs) and composition of hyperspectral twoband vegetation indices (HVIs) for biophysical characterization and discrimination of crop types using field reflectance and Hyperion/EO-1 data
P.S. Thenkabail, I. Mariotto, M.K. Gumma, E.M. Middleton, D.R. Landis, K.F. Huemmrich
2013, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (6) 427-439
The overarching goal of this study was to establish optimal hyperspectral vegetation indices (HVIs) and hyperspectral narrowbands (HNBs) that best characterize, classify, model, and map the world's main agricultural crops. The primary objectives were: (1) crop biophysical modeling through HNBs and HVIs, (2) accuracy assessment of crop type discrimination using...
Vegetation greenness trend (2000 to 2009) and the climate controls in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
Li Zhang, Huadong Guo, Lei Ji, Liping Lei, Cuizhen Wang, Dongmei Yan, Bin Li, Jing Li
2013, Journal of Applied Remote Sensing (7)
The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau has been experiencing a distinct warming trend, and climate warming has a direct and quick impact on the alpine grassland ecosystem. We detected the greenness trend of the grasslands in the plateau using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data from 2000 to 2009. Weather station data were used...
Use of NMR logging to obtain estimates of hydraulic conductivity in the High Plains aquifer, Nebraska, USA
Katherine Dlubac, Rosemary Knight, Yi-Qiao Song, Nate Bachman, Ben Grau, Jim Cannia, John Williams
2013, Water Resources Research (49) 1871-1886
Hydraulic conductivity (K) is one of the most important parameters of interest in groundwater applications because it quantifies the ease with which water can flow through an aquifer material. Hydraulic conductivity is typically measured by conducting aquifer tests or wellbore flow (WBF) logging. Of interest in our research is the...
EO-1 Hyperion reflectance time series at calibration and validation sites: stability and sensitivity to seasonal dynamics
P.K.E. Campbell, E.M. Middleton, K. J. Thome, Raymond F. Kokaly, K.F. Huemmrich, K.A. Novick, N.A. Brunsell
2013, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (6) 276-290
This study evaluated Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) Hyperion reflectance time series at established calibration sites to assess the instrument stability and suitability for monitoring vegetation functional parameters. Our analysis using three pseudo-invariant calibration sites in North America indicated that the reflectance time series are devoid of apparent spectral trends and...
Effects of hydrologic connectivity and environmental nariables on nekton assemblage in a coastal marsh system
Sung-Ryong Kang, Sammy L. King
2013, Wetlands (33) 321-334
Hydrologic connectivity and environmental variation can influence nekton assemblages in coastal ecosystems. We evaluated the effects of hydrologic connectivity (permanently connected pond: PCP; temporary connected pond: TCP), salinity, vegetation coverage, water depth and other environmental variables on seasonal nekton assemblages in freshwater, brackish, and saline marshes of the Chenier Plain,...
Regulation of gonadal sex ratios and pubertal development by the thyroid endocrine system in zebrafish (Danio rerio)
Prakash Sharma, Reynaldo Patino
2013, General and Comparative Endocrinology (184) 111-119
We examined associations between thyroid condition, gonadal sex and pubertal development in zebrafish. Seventy-two-hour postfertilization larvae were reared in untreated medium or in the presence of goitrogens (sodium perchlorate, 0.82 mM; methimazole, 0.15 and 0.3 mM) or thyroxine (1 and 10 nM) for 30 days. Thyrocyte height, gonadal sex and...
Geochemistry, petrography, and zircon U-Pb geochronology of Paleozoic metaigneous rocks in the Mount Veta area of east-central Alaska: implications for the evolution of the westernmost part of the Yukon-Tanana terrane
Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, Warren C. Day, John N. Aleinikoff
2013, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (50) 826-846
We report the results of new mapping, whole-rock major, minor, and trace-element geochemistry, and petrography for metaigneous rocks from the Mount Veta area in the westernmost part of the allochthonous Yukon–Tanana terrane (YTT) in east-central Alaska. These rocks include tonalitic mylonite gneiss and mafic metaigneous rocks from the Chicken metamorphic...
Spatial variability of the response to climate change in regional groundwater systems -- examples from simulations in the Deschutes Basin, Oregon
Michael S. Waibel, Marshall W. Gannett, Heejun Chang, Christina L. Hulbe
2013, Journal of Hydrology (486) 187-201
We examine the spatial variability of the response of aquifer systems to climate change in and adjacent to the Cascade Range volcanic arc in the Deschutes Basin, Oregon using downscaled global climate model projections to drive surface hydrologic process and groundwater flow models. Projected warming over the 21st century is...
