Selected water-quality data from the Cedar River and Cedar Rapids well fields, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 2006-10
Gregory R. Littin
2012, Data Series 657
The Cedar River alluvial aquifer is the primary source of municipal water in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area. Municipal wells are completed in the alluvial aquifer approximately 40 to 80 feet below land surface. The City of Cedar Rapids and the U.S. Geological Survey have been conducting a cooperative study...
Description and validation of an automated methodology for mapping mineralogy, vegetation, and hydrothermal alteration type from ASTER satellite imagery with examples from the San Juan Mountains, Colorado
Barnaby W. Rockwell
2012, Scientific Investigations Map 3190
The efficacy of airborne spectroscopic, or "hyperspectral," remote sensing for geoenvironmental watershed evaluations and deposit-scale mapping of exposed mineral deposits has been demonstrated. However, the acquisition, processing, and analysis of such airborne data at regional and national scales can be time and cost prohibitive. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and...
Using existing data to estimate aquifer properties, Great Lakes Region, USA
Robert A. Darner, Rodney A. Sheets
2012, Ground Water (50)
To determine specific storage and porosity, areally limited and time-consuming aquifer tests are frequently done. Hydrogeologic studies often do not have the resources to collect such data and rely on existing data sources for aquifer properties. An alternative tool for determining these aquifer properties is the analysis of earth tides....
Inflation rates, rifts, and bands in a pāhoehoe sheet flow
Richard P. Hoblitt, Tim R. Orr, Christina Heliker, Roger P. Denlinger, Ken Hon, Peter F. Cervelli
2012, Geosphere (8) 179-195
The margins of sheet flows—pāhoehoe lavas emplaced on surfaces sloping <2°—are typically delineated by structures that form to accommodate vertical flow inflation. We refer to these structures as inflation rifts. The surfaces of inflation rifts almost always exhibit bands of varying color and texture. Various explanations for the bands have...
Preliminary investigations of the winter ecology of Long-billed Curlews in coastal Texas
Marc C. Woodin, Mary Kay Skoruppa, Jeremy W. Edwardson, Jane E. Austin
2012, Open-File Report 2011-1312
Since the early 1900s, the distribution of the Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus) has contracted dramatically in the eastern one-half of its historic range. The species has been designated as a "Bird of Conservation Concern" and focal species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a species of concern by several...
Groundwater quality in the Delaware and St. Lawrence River Basins, New York, 2010
Elizabeth A. Nystrom
2012, Open-File Report 2011-1320
Water samples were collected from 10 production and domestic wells in the Delaware River Basin in New York and from 20 production and domestic wells in the St. Lawrence River Basin in New York from August through November 2010 to characterize groundwater quality in the basins. The samples were collected...
Shallow coal exploration drill-hole data--Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas
Brett J. Valentine, Kristin O. Dennen
2012, Open-File Report 2011-1261
Coal exploration drill-hole data from over 24,000 wells in 10 States are discussed by State in the chapters of this report, and the data are provided in an accompanying spreadsheet. The drill holes were drilled between 1962 and 1984 by Phillips Coal Company, a division of Phillips Petroleum Company (Phillips)....
Variation in wind and piscivorous predator fields affecting the survival of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, in the Gulf of Maine
K.D. Friedland, J.P. Manning, Jason S. Link, J.R. Gilbert, A.T. Gilbert, A.F. O'Connell Jr.
2012, Fisheries Management and Ecology (19) 22-35
Observations relevant to the North American stock complex of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L., suggest that marine mortality is influenced by variation in predation pressure affecting post‐smolts during the first months at sea. This hypothesis was tested for Gulf of Maine (GOM) stocks by examining wind pseudostress and the distribution of piscivorous...
Occupancy modeling and estimation of the holiday darter species complex within the Etowah River system
Gregory B. Anderson, Mary Freeman, Megan M. Hagler, Byron J. Freeman
2012, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (141) 34-45
Documenting the status of rare fishes is a crucial step in effectively managing populations and implementing regulatory mechanisms of protection. In recent years, site occupancy has become an increasingly popular metric for assessing populations, but species distribution models that do not account for imperfect detection can underestimate the proportion of...
User's guide for mapIMG 3--Map image re-projection software package
Michael P. Finn, David M. Mattli
2012, Open-File Report 2011-1306
Version 0.0 (1995), Dan Steinwand, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)/Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center (EDC)--Version 0.0 was a command line version for UNIX that required four arguments: the input metadata, the output metadata, the input data file, and the output destination path. Version 1.0 (2003), Stephen Posch and Michael...
Floods of July 23-26, 2010, in the Little Maquoketa River and Maquoketa River Basins, Northeast Iowa
David A. Eash
2012, Open-File Report 2011-1301
Minor flooding occurred July 23, 2010, in the Little Maquoketa River Basin and major flooding occurred July 23–26, 2010, in the Maquoketa River Basin in northeast Iowa following severe thunderstorm activity over the region during July 22–24. A breach of the Lake Delhi Dam on July 24 aggravated flooding on...
Integrating scales of seagrass monitoring to meet conservation needs
Hilary A. Neckles, Blaine S. Kopp, Bradley J. Peterson, Penelope S. Pooler
2012, Estuaries and Coasts (35) 23-46
We evaluated a hierarchical framework for seagrass monitoring in two estuaries in the northeastern USA: Little Pleasant Bay, Massachusetts, and Great South Bay/Moriches Bay, New York. This approach includes three tiers of monitoring that are integrated across spatial scales and sampling intensities. We identified monitoring attributes for determining attainment of...
Experimentally derived salinity tolerance of hatchling Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) from the Everglades, Florida (USA)
Kristen M. Hart, Pamela J. Schofield, Denise R. Gregoire
2012, Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology (413) 56-59
In a laboratory setting, we tested the ability of 24 non-native, wild-caught hatchling Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) collected in the Florida Everglades to survive when given water containing salt to drink. After a one-month acclimation period in the laboratory, we grouped snakes into three treatments, giving them access to...
Hormesis associated with a low dose of methylmercury injected into mallard eggs
Gary H. Heinz, David J. Hoffman, Jon D. Klimstra, Katherine R. Stebbins, Shannon L. Kondrad, Carol A. Erwin
2012, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (62) 141-144
We injected mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) eggs with methylmercury chloride at doses of 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8, 1.6, 3.2, and 6.4 μg mercury/g egg contents on a wet-weight basis. A case of hormesis seemed to occur because hatching success of eggs injected with 0.05 μg/g mercury (the lowest dose) was significantly...
Wastewater indicator compounds in wastewater effluent, surface water, and bed sediment in the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway and implications for water resources and aquatic biota, Minnesota and Wisconsin, 2007-08
Abigail A. Tomasek, Kathy Lee, Donald S. Hansen
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5208
The U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service cooperated on a study to determine the occurrence of wastewater indicator compounds including nutrients; organic wastewater compounds (OWCs), such as compounds used in plastic components, surfactant metabolites, antimicrobials, fragrances, and fire retardants; and pharmaceuticals in the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway...
Fluid geochemistry of Yucca Mountain and vicinity
Brian D. Marshall, Richard J. Moscati, Gary L. Patterson
John S. Stuckless, editor(s)
2012, Book chapter, Hydrology and geochemistry of Yucca Mountain and vicinity, Southern Nevada and California
Yucca Mountain, a site in southwest Nevada, has been proposed for a deep underground radioactive waste repository. An extensive database of geochemical and isotopic characteristics has been established for pore waters and gases from the unsaturated zone, perched water, and saturated zone waters in the Yucca Mountain area. The development...
Steroidal hormones and other endocrine active compounds in shallow groundwater in nonagricultural areas of Minnesota—Study design, methods, and data, 2009–10
Melinda L. Erickson
2012, Data Series 663
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, completed a study on the occurrence of steroidal hormones and other endocrine active compounds in shallow groundwater in nonagricultural areas of Minnesota during 2009–10. This report describes the study design and methods, and presents the data collected on...
Base flow (1966-2009) and streamflow gain and loss (2010) of the Brazos River from the New Mexico-Texas State line to Waco, Texas
Stanley Baldys, Frank E. Schalla
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5224
During 2010–11, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Texas Water Development Board, used hydrograph separation to quantify historical base flow at 11 USGS streamflow-gaging stations between water years 1966–2009 and streamflow gains and losses from two sets of synoptic measurements of streamflow and specific conductance (the first...
Monitoring floods and fires during the summer of 2011--The value of the Landsat satellite 40-year archives
Linda Owen
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3006
The summer of 2011 proved to be a season of extreme events. Heavy snowfall in the western mountains and excessive spring rains caused flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers; whereas extended dry conditions enabled fires to rage out of control from Alaska and Canada, south to Texas, Arizona, New...
St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center's Core Archive Portal
Chris Reich, Matt Streubert, Brendan Dwyer, Meg Godbout, Adis Muslic, Dan Umberger
2012, Data Series 626
This Web site contains information on rock cores archived at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC). Archived cores consist of 3- to 4-inch-diameter coral cores, 1- to 2-inch-diameter rock cores, and a few unlabeled loose coral and rock samples. This document - and...
Changing Arctic ecosystems--research to understand and project changes in marine and terrestrial ecosystems of the Arctic
Joy Geiselman, Anthony R. DeGange, Karen Oakley, Dirk V. Derksen, Mary E. Whalen
2012, Fact Sheet 2011-3136
Ecosystems and their wildlife communities are not static; they change and evolve over time due to numerous intrinsic and extrinsic factors. A period of rapid change is occurring in the Arctic for which our current understanding of potential ecosystem and wildlife responses is limited. Changes to the physical environment include...
Spatial patterns and temporal trends in mercury concentrations, precipitation depths, and mercury wet deposition in the North American Great Lakes region, 2002-2008
Martin R. Risch, David A. Gay, Kathleen K. Fowler, Gerard J. Keeler, Sean M. Backus, Pierrette Blanchard, James A. Barres, J. Timothy Dvonch
2012, Environmental Pollution (161) 261-271
Annual and weekly mercury (Hg) concentrations, precipitation depths, and Hg wet deposition in the Great Lakes region were analyzed by using data from 5 monitoring networks in the USA and Canada for a 2002-2008 study period. High-resolution maps of calculated annual data, 7-year mean data, and net interannual change for...
The "peer" in "peer review"
Gad Perry, Jaime Bertoluci, R. Bruce Bury, Robert W. Hansen, Robert Jehle, John Measey, Brad R. Moon, Erin L. Muths, Marco A.L. Zuffi
2012, Phyllomedusa (10) 97-98
No abstract available....
Litterfall mercury dry deposition in the eastern USA
Martin R. Risch, John F. DeWild, David P. Krabbenhoft, Randall K. Kolka, Leiming Zhang
2012, Environmental Pollution (161) 284-290
Mercury (Hg) in autumn litterfall from predominately deciduous forests was measured in 3 years of samples from 23 Mercury Deposition Network sites in 15 states across the eastern USA. Annual litterfall Hg dry deposition was significantly higher (median 12.3 micrograms per square meter (μg/m2), range 3.5–23.4 μg/m2) than annual Hg wet...
Evidence from 12-year study links ecosystem changes in the Gulf of Maine with climate change
George R. Aiken, Thomas G. Huntington, William Balch, David Drapeau, Bruce Bowler
2012, EcoSystem Indicator Partnership Journal
Investigators at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences (East Boothbay, Maine) and the U.S. Geological Survey collaborated to study ecosystem changes in the Gulf of Maine. As part of the Gulf of Maine North Atlantic Time Series (GNATS), a comprehensive long-term study of hydrographic, biological, optical and chemical properties,...
