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...
The development and application of a decision support system for land management in the Lake Tahoe Basin—The Land Use Simulation Model
William M. Forney, I. Benson Oldham, Neil Crescenti
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5229
This report describes and applies the Land Use Simulation Model (LUSM), the final modeling product for the long-term decision support project funded by the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act and developed by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Western Geographic Science Center for the Lake Tahoe Basin. Within the context of...
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,...
A compilation of U.S. Geological Survey pesticide concentration data for water and sediment in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta region: 1990–2010
James L. Orlando
2013, Data Series 756
Beginning around 2000, abundance indices of four pelagic fishes (delta smelt, striped bass, longfin smelt, and threadfin shad) within the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta began to decline sharply (Sommer and others, 2007). These declines collectively became known as the pelagic organism decline (POD). No single cause has...
Seed harvesting by a generalist consumer is context-dependent: Interactive effects across multiple spatial scales
Steven M. Ostoja, Eugene W. Schupp, Rob Klinger
2013, Oikos (122) 563-574
Granivore foraging decisions affect consumer success and determine the quantity and spatial pattern of seed survival. These decisions are influenced by environmental variation at spatial scales ranging from landscapes to local foraging patches. In a field experiment, the effects of seed patch variation across three spatial scales on seed removal...
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...
Intermediate-depth earthquakes facilitated by eclogitization-related stresses
Junichi Nakajima, Naoki Uchida, Takahiro Shiina, Akira Hasegawa, Bradley R. Hacker, Stephen H. Kirby
2013, Geology (41) 659-662
Eclogitization of the basaltic and gabbroic layer in the oceanic crust involves a volume reduction of 10%–15%. One consequence of the negative volume change is the formation of a paired stress field as a result of strain compatibility across the reaction front. Here we use waveform analysis of a tiny...
Grazing effects on plant community succession of early- and mid-seral seeded grassland compared to shortgrass steppe
Daniel G. Milchunas, Mark W. Vandever
2013, Journal of Vegetation Science (25) 22-35
Questions: Grazing may speed or slow secondary succession, and the direction may depend on seral stage and relative tolerance of native perennial grasses compared with annual invasive species. How does grazing affect succession where undisturbed communities have a long evolutionary history of grazing by native herbivores and are tolerant to...
Grazing effects on aboveground primary production and root biomass of early-seral, mid-seral, and undisturbed semiarid grassland
D.G. Milchunas, M.W. Vandever
2013, Journal of Arid Environments (92) 81-88
Annual/perennial and tall/short plant species differentially dominate early to late successional shortgrass steppe communities. Plant species can have different ratios of above-/below-ground biomass distributions and this can be modified by precipitation and grazing. We compared grazing effects on aboveground production and root biomass in early- and mid-seral fields and undisturbed...
Soil data from fire and permafrost-thaw chronosequences in upland Picea mariana stands near Hess Creek and Tok, interior Alaska
Jonathan A. O’Donnell, Jennifer W. Harden, Kristen L. Manies, M. Torre Jorgenson, Mikhail Kanevskiy, Xiaomei Xu
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1045
Soils of the Northern Circumpolar Permafrost region harbor 1,672 petagrams (Pg) (1 Pg = 1,000,000,000 kilograms) of organic carbon (OC), nearly 50 percent of the global belowground OC pool (Tarnocai and others, 2009). Of that soil OC, nearly 88 percent is presently stored in perennially frozen ground. Recent climate warming...
Groundwater withdrawals 1976, 1990, and 2000--10 and land-surface-elevation changes 2000--10 in Harris, Galveston, Fort Bend, Montgomery, and Brazoria Counties, Texas
Mark C. Kasmarek, Michaela R. Johnson
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5034
The study area comprising Harris County and parts of Galveston, Fort Bend, Montgomery, and Brazoria Counties in southeastern Texas forms part of one of the largest areas of land-surface-elevation change in the United States. Land-surface-elevation change in the study area primarily is caused by the withdrawal of groundwater. Groundwater withdrawn...
Detection of environmental DNA of Bigheaded Carps in samples collected from selected locations in the St. Croix River and in the Mississippi River
Jon J. Amberg, S. Grace McCalla, Loren Miller, Peter Sorensen, Mark P. Gaikowski
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1080
The use of molecular methods, such as the detection of environmental deoxyribonucleic acid (eDNA), have become an increasingly popular tool in surveillance programs that monitor for the presence of invasive species in aquatic systems. One early application of these methods in aquatic systems was surveillance for DNA of Asian carps...
The challenge of wolf recovery: an ongoing dilemma for state managers
L. David Mech
2013, The Wildlife Professional (2013)
“Dave, would you do another legal declaration on the wolf for us?” The weary voice on the phone belonged to Mike Jimenez, Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Management and Science Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). He was calling from Wyoming to ask me to prepare a document...
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...
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...
The effects of juvenile American shad planktivory on zooplankton production in Columbia River food webs
Craig A. Haskell, Kenneth F. Tiffan, Dennis W. Rondorf
2013, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (142) 606-620
Columbia River reservoirs support a large population of nonnative American Shad Alosa sapidissima that consume the zooplankton that native fishes also rely on. We hypothesized that the unprecedented biomass of juvenile American Shad in John Day Reservoir is capable of altering the zooplankton community if these fish consume a large...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
