Low-level copper exposures increase visibility and vulnerability of juvenile coho salmon to cutthroat trout predators
Jenifer K. McIntyre, David H. Baldwin, David A. Beauchamp, Nathaniel L. Scholz
2012, Ecological Applications (22) 1460-1471
Copper contamination in surface waters is common in watersheds with mining activities or agricultural, industrial, commercial, and residential human land uses. This widespread pollutant is neurotoxic to the chemosensory systems of fish and other aquatic species. Among Pacific salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.), copper-induced olfactory impairment has previously been shown to disrupt...
Updates to watershed modeling in the Potholes Reservoir basin, Washington-a supplement to Scientific Investigation Report 2009-5081
Mark Mastin
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1251
A previous collaborative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Reclamation resulted in a watershed model for four watersheds that discharge into Potholes Reservoir, Washington. Since the model was constructed, two new meteorological sites have been established that provide more reliable real-time information. The Bureau of Reclamation...
Morphometric sexing of Northwest Atlantic Roseate Terns
Brian G. Palestis, Ian C. T. Nisbet, Jeremy J. Hatch, Patricia Szczys, Jeffrey A. Spendelow
2012, Waterbirds (35) 479-484
A difficulty in the study of monomorphic species is the inability of observers to visually distinguish females from males. Based on a sample of 745 known-sex birds nesting at Bird Island, MA, USA, a discriminant function analysis (DFA) was used to sex Roseate Terns (Sterna dougallii) of the Northwest...
Comparing seasonal dynamics of the Lake Huron zooplankton community between 1983-1984 and 2007 and revisiting the impact of Bythotrephes planktivory
David B. Bunnell, Kevin M. Keeler, Elizabeth A. Puchala, Bruce M. Davis, Steven A. Pothoven
2012, Journal of Great Lakes Research (38) 451-462
Zooplankton community composition can be influenced by lake productivity as well as planktivory by fish or invertebrates. Previous analyses based on long-term Lake Huron zooplankton data from August reported a shift in community composition between the 1980s and 2000s: proportional biomass of calanoid copepods increased while that of cyclopoid copepods...
Age-specific light preferences and vertical migration patterns of a Great Lakes invasive invertebrate, Hemimysis anomala
Brent T. Boscarino, Kathleen E. Halpin, Lars G. Rudstam, Maureen G. Walsh, Brian F. Lantry
2012, Journal of Great Lakes Research (38) 37-44
We use a combination of spectral sensitivity analyses, laboratory behavioral observations and field distributions of a vertically migrating invertebrate, Hemimysis anomala (a recent invasive species to the Laurentian Great Lakes of North America), to determine if light preference and timing of emergence has an ontogenetic component. Juvenile Hemimysis (< 4.5...
Hydrologic and geochemical data collected near Skewed Reservoir, an impoundment for coal-bed natural gas produced water, Powder River Basin, Wyoming
Richard W. Healy, Cynthia A. Rice, Timothy T. Bartos
2012, Data Series 715
The Powder River Structural Basin is one of the largest producers of coal-bed natural gas (CBNG) in the United States. An important environmental concern in the Basin is the fate of groundwater that is extracted during CBNG production. Most of this produced water is disposed of in unlined surface impoundments....
Hierarchical distance-sampling models to estimate population size and habitat-specific abundance of an island endemic
Scott T. Sillett, Richard B. Chandler, J. Andrew Royle, Marc Kéry, Scott A. Morrison
2012, Ecological Applications (22) 1997-2006
Population size and habitat-specific abundance estimates are essential for conservation management. A major impediment to obtaining such estimates is that few statistical models are able to simultaneously account for both spatial variation in abundance and heterogeneity in detection probability, and still be amenable to large-scale applications. The hierarchical distance-sampling model...
This shrew is a jumping mouse (Mammalia, Dipodidae): Sorex dichrurus Rafinesque 1833 is a synonym of Zapus hudsonius (Zimmermann 1780)
Neal Woodman
Michael D. Carleton, editor(s)
2012, Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington (125) 308-316
Constantine S. Rafinesque described Sorex dichrurus as a shrew in 1833, based on a specimen he found in a proprietary museum near Niagara Falls on the New York/Ontario border. The name subsequently has been ignored by the scientific community. By describing this specimen as a shrew and ascribing it to...
Groundwater, surface-water, and water-chemistry data from C-aquifer monitoring program, northeastern Arizona, 2005-11
Christopher R. Brown, Jamie P. Macy
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1196
The C aquifer is a regionally extensive multiple-aquifer system supplying water for municipal, agricultural, and industrial use in northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. An increase in groundwater withdrawals from the C aquifer coupled with ongoing drought conditions in the study area increase the potential for drawdown within...
Fixed bed sorption of phosphorus from wastewater using iron oxide-based media derived from acid mine drainage
Philip L. Sibrell, T.W. Tucker
2012, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution (223) 5105-5117
Phosphorus (P) releases to the environment have been implicated in the eutrophication of important water bodies worldwide. Current technology for the removal of P from wastewaters consists of treatment with aluminum (Al) or iron (Fe) salts, but is expensive. The neutralization of acid mine drainage (AMD) generates sludge rich in...
Reconnaissance soil geochemistry at the Riverton Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Site, Fremont County, Wyoming
David B. Smith, Michael J. Sweat
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1257
Soil samples were collected and chemically analyzed from the Riverton Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Site, which lies within the Wind River Indian Reservation in Fremont County, Wyoming. Nineteen soil samples from a depth of 0 to 5 centimeters were collected in August 2011 from the site. The samples were...
Quaternary geologic map of the Glasgow 1° x 2° quadrangle, Montana
David S. Fullerton, Roger B. Colton, Charles A. Bush
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1217
The Glasgow quadrangle encompasses approximately 16,084 km2 (6,210 mi2). The northern boundary is the Montana/Saskatchewan (U.S./Canada) boundary. The quadrangle is in the Northern Plains physiographic province and it includes the Boundary Plateau, Peerless Plateau, and Larb Hills. The primary river is the Milk River. The map units are surficial deposits and...
Geologic map of the southern Funeral Mountains including nearby groundwater discharge sites in Death Valley National Park, California and Nevada
C. J. Fridrich, R. A. Thompson, J. L. Slate, M. E. Berry, M. N. Machette
2012, Scientific Investigations Map 3151
This 1:50,000-scale geologic map covers the southern part of the Funeral Mountains, and adjoining parts of four structural basins—Furnace Creek, Amargosa Valley, Opera House, and central Death Valley—in California and Nevada. It extends over three full 7.5-minute quadrangles, and parts of eleven others—an area of about 1,000 square kilometers (km2)....
Keanakākoʻi Tephra produced by 300 years of explosive eruptions following collapse of Kīlauea's caldera in about 1500 CE
Donald A. Swanson, Timothy R. Rose, Richard S. Fiske, John P. McGeehin
2012, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (215-216) 8-25
The Keanakākoʻi Tephra at Kīlauea Volcano has previously been interpreted by some as the product of a caldera-forming eruption in 1790 CE. Our study, however, finds stratigraphic and 14C evidence that the tephra instead results from numerous eruptions throughout a 300-year period between about 1500 and 1800. The stratigraphic evidence...
The discourses of incidents: Cougars on Mt. Elden and in Sabino Canyon, Arizona
David J. Mattson, Susan G. Clark
2012, Policy Sciences (45)
Incidents are relatively short periods of intensified discourse that arise from public responses to symbolically important actions by public officials, and an important part of the conflict that increasingly surrounds state wildlife management in the West. In an effort to better understand incidents as a facet of this conflict, we...
Noise suppression in surface microseismic data
Farnoush Forghani-Arani, Mike Batzle, Jyoti Behura, Mark Willis, Seth S. Haines, Michael Davidson
2012, The Leading Edge (31) 1496-1501
We introduce a passive noise suppression technique, based on the τ − p transform. In the τ − p domain, one can separate microseismic events from surface noise based on distinct characteristics that are not visible in the time-offset domain. By applying the inverse τ − p transform to the separated microseismic event,...
Computing maximum-likelihood estimates for parameters of the National Descriptive Model of Mercury in Fish
David I. Donato
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1181
This report presents the mathematical expressions and the computational techniques required to compute maximum-likelihood estimates for the parameters of the National Descriptive Model of Mercury in Fish (NDMMF), a statistical model used to predict the concentration of methylmercury in fish tissue. The expressions and techniques reported here were prepared to...
Geomorphic and stratigraphic evidence for an unusual tsunami or storm a few centuries ago at Anegada, British Virgin Islands
Brian F. Atwater, Uri S. ten Brink, Mark Buckley, Robert S. Halley, Bruce E. Jaffe, Alberto M. Lopez-Venegas, Eduard G. Reinhardt, Maritia P. Tuttle, Steve Watt, Yong Wei
2012, Natural Hazards (63) 51-84
Waters from the Atlantic Ocean washed southward across parts of Anegada, east-northeast of Puerto Rico, during a singular event a few centuries ago. The overwash, after crossing a fringing coral reef and 1.5 km of shallow subtidal flats, cut dozens of breaches through sandy beach ridges, deposited a sheet of...
Identifying bubble collapse in a hydrothermal system using hiddden Markov models
Phillip B. Dawson, M.C. Benitez, Jacob B. Lowenstern, Bernard A. Chouet
2012, Geophysical Research Letters (39)
Beginning in July 2003 and lasting through September 2003, the Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park exhibited an unusual increase in ground temperature and hydrothermal activity. Using hidden Markov model theory, we identify over five million high-frequency (>15 Hz) seismic events observed at a temporary seismic station deployed in...
Significant earthquakes on the Enriquillo fault system, Hispaniola, 1500-2010: Implications for seismic hazard
William H. Bakun, Claudia H. Flores, Uri S. ten Brink
2012, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (102) 18-30
Historical records indicate frequent seismic activity along the north-east Caribbean plate boundary over the past 500 years, particularly on the island of Hispaniola. We use accounts of historical earthquakes to assign intensities and the intensity assignments for the 2010 Haiti earthquakes to derive an intensity attenuation relation for Hispaniola. The...
Hawaiian fissure fountains 1: decoding deposits-episode 1 of the 1969-1974 Mauna Ulu eruption
C.E. Parcheta, Bruce F. Houghton, D. A. Swanson
2012, Bulletin of Volcanology (74) 1729-1743
Deposits from episode 1 of the 1969–1974 Mauna Ulu eruption of Kīlauea provide an exceptional opportunity to study processes of low intensity Hawaiian fissure fountains. Episode 1 lava flows passed through dense forest that had little impact on flow dynamics; in contrast, the pattern of spatter preservation was strongly influenced...
Energy density of bloaters in the upper Great Lakes
Steven A. Pothoven, David B. Bunnell, Charles P. Madenjian, Owen T. Gorman, Edward F. Roseman
2012, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (141) 772-780
We evaluated the energy density of bloaters Coregonus hoyi as a function of fish size across Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior in 2008–2009 and assessed how differences in energy density are related to factors such as biomass density of bloaters and availability of prey. Additional objectives were to compare energy...
Histological observations in the Hawaiian reef coral, Porites compressa, affected by Porites bleaching with tissue loss
M. Sudek, Thierry M. Work, G.S. Aeby, S.K. Davy
2012, Journal of Invertebrate Pathology (111) 121-125
The scleractinian finger coral Porites compressa is affected by the coral disease Porites bleaching with tissue loss (PBTL). This disease initially manifests as bleaching of the coenenchyme (tissue between polyps) while the polyps remain brown with eventual tissue loss and subsequent algal overgrowth of the bare skeleton. Histopathological investigation showed...
Temporal variations of geyser water chemistry in the Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, USA
Shaul Hurwitz, Andrew G. Hunt, William C. Evans
2012, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (13)
Geysers are rare features that reflect a delicate balance between an abundant supply of water and heat and a unique geometry of fractures and porous rocks. Between April 2007 and September 2008, we sampled Old Faithful, Daisy, Grand, Oblong, and Aurum geysers in Yellowstone National Park's Upper Geyser Basin and...
Waste rice seed in conventional and stripper-head harvested fields in California: Implications for wintering waterfowl
Joseph P. Fleskes, Brian J. Halstead, Michael L. Casazza, Peter S. Coates, Jeffrey D. Kohl, Daniel A. Skalos
2012, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (3) 266-275
Waste rice seed is an important food for wintering waterfowl and current estimates of its availability are needed to determine the carrying capacity of rice fields and guide habitat conservation. We used a line-intercept method to estimate mass-density of rice seed remaining after harvest during 2010 in the Sacramento Valley...
