Near-field receiving water monitoring of trace metals and a benthic community near the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant in south San Francisco Bay, California: 2011
Jessica Dyke, Janet K. Thompson, Daniel J. Cain, Amy E. Kleckner, Francis Parcheso, Samuel N. Luoma, Michelle I. Hornberger
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1165
Trace-metal concentrations in sediment and in the clam Macoma petalum (formerly reported as Macoma balthica), clam reproductive activity, and benthic macroinvertebrate community structure were investigated in a mudflat 1 kilometer south of the discharge of the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant (PARWQCP) in South San Francisco Bay, Calif....
Podiform chromite deposits--database and grade and tonnage models
Dan L. Mosier, Donald A. Singer, Barry C. Moring, John P. Galloway
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5157
Chromite ((Mg, Fe++)(Cr, Al, Fe+++)2O4) is the only source for the metallic element chromium, which is used in the metallurgical, chemical, and refractory industries. Podiform chromite deposits are small magmatic chromite bodies formed in the ultramafic section of an ophiolite complex in the oceanic crust. These deposits have been found...
Local-area-enhanced, 2.5-meter resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of the Khanneshin mineral district in Afghanistan: Chapter A in Local-area-enhanced, high-resolution natural-color and color-infrared satellite-image mosaics of mineral districts in Afghanistan
Philip A. Davis, Laura E. Cagney, Scott A. Arko, Michelle L. Harbin
2012, Data Series 709-A
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, prepared databases for mineral-resource target areas in Afghanistan. The purpose of the databases is to (1) provide useful data to ground-survey crews for use in performing detailed assessments of the...
Development and application of a groundwater/surface-water flow model using MODFLOW-NWT for the Upper Fox River Basin, southeastern Wisconsin
D. T. Feinstein, M.N. Fienen, J.L. Kennedy, C.A. Buchwald, M.M. Greenwood
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5108
The Fox River is a 199-mile-long tributary to the Illinois River within the Mississippi River Basin in the states of Wisconsin and Illinois. For the purposes of this study the Upper Fox River Basin is defined as the topographic basin that extends from the upstream boundary of the Fox River...
Tampa Bay coastal wetlands: nineteenth to twentieth century tidal marsh-to-mangrove conversion
Ellen A. Raabe, Laura C. Roy, Carole C. McIvor
2012, Estuaries and Coasts (35) 1145-1162
Currently, mangroves dominate the tidal wetlands of Tampa Bay, Florida, but an examination of historic navigation charts revealed dominance of tidal marshes with a mangrove fringe in the 1870s. This study's objective was to conduct a new assessment of wetland change in Tampa Bay by digitizing nineteenth century topographic and...
Monitoring that matters
Douglas H. Johnson
Robert A. Gitzen, Joshua J. Millspaugh, Andrew B. Cooper, Daniel S. Licht, editor(s)
2012, Book chapter, Design and analysis of long-term ecological monitoring studies
Monitoring is a critically important activity for assessing the status of a system, such as the health of an individual, the balance in one's checking account, profits and losses of a business, the economic activity of a nation, or the size of an animal population. Monitoring is especially vital for...
A modified night-netting technique for recapturing quail
Ronald J. Troy, Peter S. Coates, John W. Connelly, Gifford Gillette, David J. Delehanty
2012, Wildlife Society Bulletin (36) 578-581
Difficulties in recapturing radiomarked birds often prevent wildlife researchers from replacing transmitters and continuing to collect data over long time periods. We developed an effective, inexpensive capture technique for radiomarked mountain quail (Oreortyx pictus). Twenty-three of 25 mountain quail in south-central Idaho, USA, in 2006 and 2007 were recaptured for...
The treatment of missing data in long-term monitoring programs
Douglas H. Johnson, Michael B. Soma
R.A. Gitzen, J.J. Millspaugh, A.B. Cooper, D.S. Licht, editor(s)
2012, Book chapter, Design and analysis of long-term ecological monitoring studies
Changes in avian and plant communities of aspen woodlands over 12 years after livestock removal in the northwestern Great Basin
Susan L. Earnst, David S. Dobkin, Jennifer A. Ballard
2012, Conservation Biology (26) 862-872
Riparian and quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) woodlands are centers of avian abundance and diversity in the western United States, but they have been affected adversely by land use practices, particularly livestock grazing. In 1990, cattle were removed from a 112,500-ha national wildlife refuge in southeastern Oregon. Thereafter, we monitored changes...
Nile Delta vegetation response to Holocene climate variability
Christopher E. Bernhardt, Benjamin P. Horton, Jean-Daniel Stanley
2012, Geology (40) 615-618
A 7000 yr palynologic record from Burullus Lagoon, Nile Delta, Egypt, is assessed to investigate changes in terrestrial vegetation in response to Nile flow. Previous studies in this region have shown that sea-level rise in the early to mid-Holocene, and markedly increased human land use during the past several centuries,...
Benthic community structure and composition in sediment from the northern Gulf of Mexico shoreline, Texas to Florida
Amanda W.J. Demopoulos, Douglas G. Strom
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1153
From April 20 through July 15, 2010, approximately 4.93 million barrels of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from the British Petroleum Macondo-1 well, representing the largest spill in U.S. waters. Baseline benthic community conditions were assessed from shoreline sediment samples collected from 56 stations within the swash...
Hydrology and modeling of flow conditions at Bridge 339 and Mile 38-43, Copper River Highway, Alaska
Timothy P. Brabets
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5153
The Copper River basin, the sixth largest watershed in Alaska, drains an area of 24,200 square miles in south-central Alaska. This large, glacier-fed river flows across a wide alluvial fan before it enters the Gulf of Alaska. The Copper River Highway, which traverses the alluvial fan, has been affected by...
In situ determination of flocculated suspended material settling velocities and characteristics using a floc camera
David H. Schoellhamer, Dan Haught, Andrew Manning
2012, Conference Paper
Estimates of suspended sediment settling are necessary for numerical sediment models, water quality studies, and rehabilitation of coastal ecosystems. Settling of cohesive sediment, which is common in estuaries, is more difficult to quantify than noncohesive sediment because of flocculation. Flocs are composed of an aggregation of finer silts, clays, and...
Shifting species interactions in terrestrial dryland ecosystems under altered water availability and climate change
Kevin E. McCluney, Jayne Belnap, Scott L. Collins, Angelica L. Gonzalez, Elizabeth M. Hagen, J. Nathaniel Holland, Burt P. Kotler, Fernando T. Maestre, Stanley D. Smith, Blair O. Wolf
2012, Biological Reviews (87) 563-582
Species interactions play key roles in linking the responses of populations, communities, and ecosystems to environmental change. For instance, species interactions are an important determinant of the complexity of changes in trophic biomass with variation in resources. Water resources are a major driver of terrestrial ecology and climate change is...
Groundwater-quality data in the Borrego Valley, Central Desert, and Low-Use Basins of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts study unit, 2008-2010--Results from the California GAMA Program
Timothy M. Mathany, Michael T. Wright, Brandon S. Beuttel, Kenneth Belitz
2012, Data Series 659
Groundwater quality in the 12,103-square-mile Borrego Valley, Central Desert, and Low-Use Basins of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts (CLUB) study unit was investigated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) from December 2008 to March 2010, as part of the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and...
Sinks for nitrogen inputs in terrestrial ecosystems: a meta-analysis of 15N tracer field studies
P.H. Templer, M.C. Mack, F. S. Chapin III, L.M. Christenson, J.E. Compton, H.D. Crook, W.S. Currie, C.J. Curtis, D.B. Dail, C. M. D’Antonio, B.A. Emmett, H.E. Epstein, C.L. Goodale, P. Gundersen, S.E. Hobbie, K. Holland, D.U. Hooper, B.A. Hungate, S. Lamontagne, K.J. Nadelhoffer, C.W. Osenberg, S.S. Perakis, P. Schleppi, J. Schimel, I.K. Schmidt, M. Sommerkorn, J. Spoelstra, A. Tietema, W.W. Wessel, D.R. Zak
2012, Ecology (93) 1816-1829
Effects of anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition and the ability of terrestrial ecosystems to store carbon (C) depend in part on the amount of N retained in the system and its partitioning among plant and soil pools. We conducted a meta-analysis of studies at 48 sites across four continents that used...
Bioclimatic predictors for supporting ecological applications in the conterminous United States
Michael S. O’Donnel, Drew A. Ignizio
2012, Data Series 691
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed climate indices, referred to as bioclimatic predictors, which highlight climate conditions best related to species physiology. A set of 20 bioclimatic predictors were developed as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) continuous raster surfaces for each year between 1895 and 2009. The Parameter-elevation Regression on...
Assessment of potential additions to conventional oil and gas resources in discovered fields of the United States from reserve growth, 2012
U.S. Geological Survey Reserve Growth Assessment Team
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3108
The U.S. Geological Survey estimated volumes of technically recoverable, conventional petroleum resources that have the potential to be added to reserves from reserve growth in 70 discovered oil and gas accumulations of the United States, excluding Federal offshore areas. The mean estimated volumes are 32 billion barrels of crude oil,...
Mercury bioaccumulation studies in the National Water-Quality Assessment Program--biological data from New York and South Carolina, 2005-2009
Karen M. Beaulieu, Daniel T. Button, Barbara C. Scudder Eikenberry, Karen Riva-Murray, Lia C. Chasar, Paul M. Bradley, Douglas A. Burns
2012, Data Series 705
The U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment Program conducted a multidisciplinary study from 2005–09 to investigate the bioaccumulation of mercury in streams from two contrasting environmental settings. Study areas were located in the central Adirondack Mountains region of New York and the Inner Coastal Plain of South Carolina. Fish, macroinvertebrates,...
Locations and attributes of utility-scale solar power facilities in Colorado and New Mexico, 2011
Drew A. Ignizio, Natasha B. Carr
2012, Data Series 693
The data series consists of polygonal boundaries for utility-scale solar power facilities (both photovoltaic and concentrating solar power) located within Colorado and New Mexico as of December 2011. Attributes captured for each facility include the following: facility name, size/production capacity (in MW), type of solar technology employed, location, state, operational...
Probabilistic prediction of barrier-island response to hurricanes
Nathaniel G. Plant, Hilary F. Stockdon
2012, Journal of Geophysical Research (117)
Prediction of barrier-island response to hurricane attack is important for assessing the vulnerability of communities, infrastructure, habitat, and recreational assets to the impacts of storm surge, waves, and erosion. We have demonstrated that a conceptual model intended to make qualitative predictions of the type of beach response to storms (e.g.,...
Effects of brush management on the hydrologic budget and water quality in and adjacent to Honey Creek State Natural Area, Comal County, Texas, 2001--10
J. Ryan Banta, Richard N. Slattery
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3097
Woody vegetation, including ashe juniper (Juniperus ashei), has encroached on some areas in central Texas that were historically oak grassland savannah. Encroachment of woody vegetation is generally attributed to overgrazing and fire suppression. Removing the ashe juniper and allowing native grasses to reestablish in the area as a brush management...
Geologic map of the Alley Spring quadrangle, Shannon County, Missouri
David J. Weary, Randall C. Orndorff
2012, Scientific Investigations Map 3161
The Alley Spring 7.5-minute quadrangle is located in south-central Missouri within the Salem Plateau region of the Ozark Plateaus physiographic province. About 1,990 feet (ft) of flat-lying to gently dipping Lower Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, mostly dolomite, chert, sandstone, and orthoquartzite, overlie Mesoproterozoic volcanic rocks. A small exposure of the volcanic...
Estimating tag loss of the Atlantic Horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, using a multi-state model
Catherine Alyssa Butler, Conor P. McGowan, J. Barry Grand, David Smith
2012, Conference Paper
The Atlantic Horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, is a valuable resource along the Mid-Atlantic coast which has, in recent years, experienced new management paradigms due to increased concern about this species role in the environment. While current management actions are underway, many acknowledge the need for improved and updated parameter estimates...
Forecasting climate change impacts to plant community composition in the Sonoran Desert region
Seth M. Munson, Robert H. Webb, Jayne Belnap, J. Andrew Hubbard, Don E. Swann, Sue Rutman
2012, Global Change Biology (18) 1083-1095
Hotter and drier conditions projected for the southwestern United States can have a large impact on the abundance and composition of long-lived desert plant species. We used long-term vegetation monitoring results from 39 large plots across four protected sites in the Sonoran Desert region to determine how plant species have...
