Hydraulic and Geomorphic Assessment of the Merced River and Historic Bridges in Eastern Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California: Sacramento, California
J. Toby Minear, Scott Wright
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1016
The Merced River in the popular and picturesque eastern-most part of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, California, USA, has been extensively altered since the park was first conceived in 1864. Historical human trampling of streambanks has been suggested as the cause of substantial increases in stream width, and the...
Final report and archive of the swath bathymetry and ancillary data collected in the Puerto Rico Trench region in 2002 and 2003
Uri S. ten Brink, William W. Danforth, Christopher F. Polloni
2013, Open-File Report 2006-1210
In 2002 and 2003, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), conducted three exploration cruises that mapped for the first time the morphology of the entire tectonic plate boundary stretching from the Dominican Republic in the west to the Lesser Antilles in...
Effects of best-management practices in Bower Creek in the East River priority watershed, Wisconsin, 1991-2009
Steven R. Corsi, Judy A. Horwatich, Troy D. Rutter, Roger T. Bannerman
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5217
Hydrologic and water-quality data were collected at Bower Creek during the periods before best-management practices (BMPs), and after BMPs were installed for evaluation of water-quality improvements. The monitoring was done between 1990 and 2009 with the pre-BMP period ending in July 1994 and the post-BMP period beginning in October 2006....
Distribution and environmental persistence of the causative agent of white-nose syndrome, Geomyces destructans, in bat hibernacula of the eastern United States
Jeffrey M. Lorch, Laura K. Muller, Robin E. Russell, Michael O’Connor, Daniel L. Lindner, David S. Blehert
2013, Applied and Environmental Microbiology (79) 1293-1301
White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emerging disease of hibernating bats caused by the recently described fungus Geomyces destructans. First isolated in 2008, the origins of this fungus in North America and its ability to persist in the environment remain undefined. To investigate the correlation between manifestation of WNS and distribution...
Vegetation projections for Wind Cave National Park with three future climate scenarios: Final report in completion of Task Agreement J8W07100052
David A. King, Dominique M. Bachelet, Amy J. Symstad
2013, National Park Service Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/WICA/NRTRT--2013/681
Introduction The effects of climate change on the natural resources protected by Parks will likely be substantial, but geographically variable, due to local variation in climate trajectories and differences among ecosystems in their vulnerability to climate change. The projections of general circulation models (GCMs) indicate the possible magnitude and direction of...
Identification of metrics to monitor salt marsh integrity on National Wildlife Refuges in relation to conservation and management objectives
Hilary A. Neckles, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, W. George Shriver, Nicholas P. Danz, Whitney A. Wiest, Jessica L. Nagel, Jennifer H. Olker
2013, Report
Executive Summary Most salt marshes in the US have been degraded by human activities, and threats from physical alterations, surrounding land-use, species invasions, and global climate change persist. Salt marshes are unique and highly productive ecosystems with high intrinsic value to wildlife, and many National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) have been established...
Geologic model for the assessment of undiscovered hydrocarbons in Lower to Upper Cretaceous carbonate rocks of the Fredericksburg and Washita groups, U.S. Gulf Coast Region
Sharon M. Swanson, Catherine B. Enomoto, Kristin O. Dennen, Brett J. Valentine, Celeste D. Lohr
2013, Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions (63) 423-437
As part of the assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in Jurassic and Cretaceous strata of the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey assessed carbonate rocks of the Fredericksburg and Washita groups and their equivalent units underlying onshore lands and State waters. One conventional assessment unit...
Clustering of GPS velocities in the Mojave Block, southeastern California
James C. Savage, Robert W. Simpson
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (118) 1747-1759
We find subdivisions within the Mojave Block using cluster analysis to identify groupings in the velocities observed at GPS stations there. The clusters are represented on a fault map by symbols located at the positions of the GPS stations, each symbol representing the cluster to which the velocity of that...
234U/238U and δ87Sr in peat as tracers of paleosalinity in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of California, USA
Judith Z. Drexler, James B. Paces, Charles N. Alpers, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Leonid A. Neymark, Thomas D. Bullen, Howard E. Taylor
2013, Applied Geochemistry (40) 164-179
The purpose of this study was to determine the history of paleosalinity over the past 6000+ years in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (the Delta), which is the innermost part of the San Francisco Estuary. We used a combination of Sr and U concentrations, d87Sr values, and 234U/238U activity ratios (AR)...
Pacific Island landbird monitoring annual report, Haleakalā National Park, 2012
Seth W. Judge, Richard J. Camp, Patrick J. Hart
2013, National Park Service Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/PACN/NRTR—2013/740
Haleakalā National Park (HALE) was surveyed for landbirds and habitat characteristics from March 20 through July 26, 2012. This information provides data in the time-series of landbird monitoring for long-term trends in forest bird distribution, density, and abundance. The Kīpahulu District of eastern Haleakalā Volcano was surveyed using point-transect distance...
Monitoring vegetation response to episodic disturbance events by using multitemporal vegetation indices
Gregory D. Steyer, Brady R. Couvillion, John A. Barras
2013, Journal of Coastal Research 118-130
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery and land/water assessments from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery were used to quantify the extent and severity of damage and subsequent recovery after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita of 2005 within the vegetation communities of Louisiana's coastal wetlands....
Effects of mercury deposition and coniferous forests on the mercury contamination of fish in the south central United States
Ray W. Drenner, Matthew M. Chumchal, Christina M. Jones, Christopher M.B. Lehmann, David A. Gay, David I. Donato
2013, Environmental Science & Technology (47) 1274-1279
Mercury (Hg) is a toxic metal that is found in aquatic food webs and is hazardous to human and wildlife health. We examined the relationship between Hg deposition, land coverage by coniferous and deciduous forests, and average Hg concentrations in largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides)-equivalent fish (LMBE) in 14 ecoregions located...
100,000-year-long terrestrial record of millennial-scale linkage between eastern North American mid-latitude paleovegetation shifts and Greenland ice-core oxygen isotope trends
Ronald J. Litwin, Joseph P. Smoot, Milan J. Pavich, Helaine W. Markewich, George Brook, Nancy J. Durika
2013, Quaternary Research (80) 291-315
We document frequent, rapid, strong, millennial-scale paleovegetation shifts throughout the late Pleistocene, within a 100,000+ yr interval (~ 115–15 ka) of terrestrial sediments from the mid-Atlantic Region (MAR) of North America. High-resolution analyses of fossil pollen from one core locality revealed a continuously shifting sequence of thermally dependent forest assemblages,...
Galveston Bay: Chapter D in Emergent wetlands status and trends in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1950-2010
Lawrence R. Handley, Kathryn A. Spear, Eleonor Taylor, Cindy A. Thatcher
2013, Report, Emergent wetlands status and trends in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1950-2010
The Galveston Bay estuary is located on the upper Texas Gulf coast (Lester and Gonzalez, 2002). It is composed of four major sub-bays - Galveston, Trinity, East, and West Bays. It is Texas’ largest estuary on the Gulf Coast with a total area of 155,399 hectares (384,000 acres) and 1,885...
Very long period conduit oscillations induced by rockfalls at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii
Bernard A. Chouet, Phillip B. Dawson
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (118) 5352-5371
Eruptive activity at the summit of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, beginning in 2010 and continuing to the present time is characterized by transient outgassing bursts accompanied by very long period (VLP) seismic signals triggered by rockfalls from the vent walls impacting a lava lake in a pit within the Halemaumau pit...
Photogrammetric monitoring of lava dome growth during the 2009 eruption of Redoubt Volcano
Angela K. Diefenbach, Katharine F. Bull, Rick Wessels, Robert G. McGimsey
2013, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (259) 308-316
The 2009 eruption of Redoubt Volcano, Alaska, began with a phreatic explosion on 15 March followed by a series of at least 19 explosive events and growth and destruction of at least two, and likely three, lava domes between 22 March and 4 April. On 4 April explosive activity...
Woodland dynamics at the northern range periphery: A challenge for protected area management in a changing world
Scott L. Powell, Andrew J. Hansen, Thomas J. Rodhouse, Lisa K. Garrett, Julio L. Betancourt, Gordon H. Dicus, Meghan K. Lonneker
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Managers of protected natural areas increasingly are confronted with novel ecological conditions and conflicting objectives to preserve the past while fostering resilience for an uncertain future. This dilemma may be pronounced at range peripheries where rates of change are accelerated and ongoing invasions often are perceived as threats to local...
Global climate change impacts on coastal ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico: Considerations for integrated coastal management
John W. Day, Alejandro Yanez-Arancibia, James H. Cowan, Richard H. Day, Robert R. Twilley, John R. Rybczyk
2013, Book chapter, Gulf of Mexico origin, waters, and biota
Global climate change is important in considerations of integrated coastal management in the Gulf of Mexico. This is true for a number of reasons. Climate in the Gulf spans the range from tropical to the lower part of the temperate zone. Thus, as climate warms, the tropical temperate interface, which...
Laramide basin CSI: Comprehensive stratigraphic investigations of Paleogene sediments in the Colorado Headwaters Basin, north-central Colorado
Marieke Dechesne, James C. Cole, James H. Trexler, Patricia Cashman, Christopher D Peterson
2013, Book chapter, Classic concepts and new directions: Exploring 125 years of GSA discoveries in the Rocky Mountain Region
The Paleogene sedimentary deposits of the Colorado Headwaters Basin provide a detailed proxy record of regional deformation and basin subsidence during the Laramide orogeny in north-central Colorado and southern Wyoming. This field trip presents extensive evidence from sedimentology, stratigraphy, structure, palynology, and isotope geochronology that shows a complex history that...
Distribution of burrowing owls in east-central South Dakota
Jill A. Shaffer, Jason P. Thiele
2013, The Prairie Naturalist (45) 60-64
Western burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) populations have declined across much of western North America, particularly at the northern and eastern edges of the species’ breeding range (Martell et al. 2001, Murphy et al. 2001, Shyry et al. 2001, Skeel et al. 2001, Klute et al. 2003). In South Dakota,...
Assessing winter cover crop nutrient uptake efficiency using a water quality simulation model
In-Young Yeo, Sangchui Lee, Ali M. Sadeghi, Peter C. Beeson, W. Dean Hively, Greg W. McCarty, Megan W. Lang
2013, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (10) 14229-14263
Winter cover crops are an effective conservation management practice with potential to improve water quality. Throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (CBW), which is located in the Mid-Atlantic US, winter cover crop use has been emphasized and federal and state cost-share programs are available to farmers to subsidize the cost of...
Phylogeography, post-glacial gene flow, and population history of North American goshawks (Accipeter gentilis)
Shelley Bayard De Volo, Richard T. Reynolds, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Sandra L. Talbot, Michael F. Antolin
2013, The Auk (130) 342-354
Climate cycling during the Quaternary played a critical role in the diversification of avian lineages in North America, greatly influencing the genetic characteristics of contemporary populations. To test the hypothesis that North American Northern Goshawks (Accipitergentilis) were historically isolated within multiple Late Pleistocene refugia, we assessed diversity and population genetic...
Spring migratory pathways and migration chronology of Canada geese (Branta canadensis interior) wintering at the Santee National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina
Molly M. Giles, Patrick G.R. Jodice, Robert F. Baldwin, John D. Stanton, Marc Epstein
2013, Canadian Field-Naturalist (127) 17-25
We assessed the migratory pathways, migration chronology, and breeding ground affiliation of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis interior) that winter in and adjacent to the Santee National Wildlife Refuge in Summerton, South Carolina, United States. Satellite transmitters were fitted to eight Canada Geese at Santee National Wildlife Refuge during the winter...
The false spring of 2012, earliest in North American record
T.R. Ault, G.M. Henebry, K. M. de Beurs, M.D. Schwartz, Julio L. Betancourt, David Moore
2013, Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union (94) 181-183
Phenology - the study of recurring plant and animal life cycle stages, especially their timing and relationships with weather and climate - is becoming an essential tool for documenting, communicating, and anticipating the consequences of climate variability and change. For example, March 2012 broke numerous records for warm temperatures and...
Statewide summary for Alabama
Lawrence R. Handley, Kathryn A. Spear, Stephen Jones, Cindy A. Thatcher
2013, Report, Emergent wetlands status and trends in the northern Gulf of Mexico: 1950-2010
Alabama is over 132,000 km2 (51,000 miles2) in area, 483 km (300 miles) long, and 322 km (200 miles) wide (Copeland, 1968). Coastal Alabama comprises Mobile and Baldwin Counties and the surrounding State waters in the Gulf of Mexico (Figure 1; O’Neil and Mettee, 1982). It is part of both...
