Development and evaluation of a boat-mounted RFID antenna for monitoring freshwater mussels
Jesse R. Fischer, Travis E. Neebling, Michael C. Quist
2012, Freshwater Science (31) 148-153
Development of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags has substantially increased the ability of researchers and managers to monitor populations of aquatic organisms. However, use of transportable RFID antenna systems (i.e., backpack-mounted) is currently limited to wadeable aquatic environments (<1.4 m water depth). We describe...
Hatchlings of the western pond turtle (Actinemys marmorata) in diet of great blue heron (Ardea herodias)
Steve A. Niemela, R. Bruce Bury
2012, Northwestern Naturalist (93) 84-85
The challenge of retarding erosion of island biodiversity through phytosanitary measures: An update on the case of Puccinia psidii in Hawai'i
Lloyd L. Loope, Janice Y. Uchida
2012, Pacific Science (66) 127-139
Most rust fungi are highly host specific, but Puccina psidii has an extremely broad host range within Myrtaceae and gained notoriety with a host jump in its native Brazil from common guava (Psidium guajava) to commercial Eucalyptus plantations. When detected in Hawaiʻi in April 2005, the first invasion outside the...
Surveillance for White-Nose Syndrome in the bat community at El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico, 2011
Ernest W. Valdez
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1097
From late winter to summer 2011, the U.S. Geological Survey Arid Lands Field Station conducted mist-netting efforts at El Malpais National Monument and on adjacent lands belonging to Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service to detect the occurrence of white-nose syndrome or causal fungal agent (Geomyces destructans). During...
Estimation of streamflow gains and losses in the lower San Antonio River watershed, south-central Texas, 2006-10
Joy S. Lizarraga, Loren L. Wehmeyer
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5073
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the San Antonio River Authority, the Evergreen Underground Water Conservation District, and the Goliad County Groundwater Conservation District, investigated streamflow gains and losses during 2006-10 in the lower San Antonio River watershed in south-central Texas. Streamflow gains and losses were estimated using...
Prioritizing pesticide compounds for analytical methods development
Julia E. Norman, Kathryn Kuivila, Lisa H. Nowell
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5045
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a periodic need to re-evaluate pesticide compounds in terms of priorities for inclusion in monitoring and studies and, thus, must also assess the current analytical capabilities for pesticide detection. To meet this need, a strategy has been developed to prioritize pesticides and degradates for...
Approaches in highly parameterized inversion - PEST++, a Parameter ESTimation code optimized for large environmental models
David E. Welter, John E. Doherty, Randall J. Hunt, Christopher T. Muffels, Matthew J. Tonkin, Willem A. Schreuder
2012, Techniques and Methods 7-C5
An object-oriented parameter estimation code was developed to incorporate benefits of object-oriented programming techniques for solving large parameter estimation modeling problems. The code is written in C++ and is a formulation and expansion of the algorithms included in PEST, a widely used parameter estimation code written in Fortran. The new...
Examining the contradiction in 'sustainable urban growth': an example of groundwater sustainability
Moira L. Zellner, Howard W. Reeves
2012, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management (55) 545-562
The environmental planning literature proposes a set of 'best management practices' for urban development that assumes improvement in environmental quality as a result of specific urban patterns. These best management practices, however, often do not recognise finite biophysical limits and social impacts that urban patterns alone cannot overcome. To shed...
Improving sub-grid scale accuracy of boundary features in regional finite-difference models
Sorab Panday, Christian D. Langevin
2012, Advances in Water Resources (41) 65-75
As an alternative to grid refinement, the concept of a ghost node, which was developed for nested grid applications, has been extended towards improving sub-grid scale accuracy of flow to conduits, wells, rivers or other boundary features that interact with a finite-difference groundwater flow model. The formulation is presented for...
Implementation of the vortex force formalism in the coupled ocean-atmosphere-wave-sediment transport (COAWST) modeling system for inner shelf and surf zone applications
Nirnimesh Kumar, George Voulgaris, John C. Warner, Maitane Olabarrieta
2012, Ocean Modelling (47) 65-95
The coupled ocean-atmosphere-wave-sediment transport modeling system (COAWST) enables simulations that integrate oceanic, atmospheric, wave and morphological processes in the coastal ocean. Within the modeling system, the three-dimensional ocean circulation module (ROMS) is coupled with the wave generation and propagation model (SWAN) to allow full integration of the effect of waves...
White-nose syndrome in cave bats of North America
E.L. Buckles, Anne E. Ballmann
R.E. Miller, M.E. Fowler, editor(s)
2012, Book chapter, Fowler's Zoo and Wild Animal Medicine Current Therapy, Volume 7
No abstract available....
Environmental conditions associated with bat white-nose syndrome in the north-eastern United States
Abigail R. Flory, Sunil Kumar, Thomas J. Stohlgren, Paul M. Cryan
2012, Journal of Applied Ecology (49) 680-689
1. White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emerging disease of hibernating North American bats that is caused by the cold-growing fungus Geomyces destructans. Since first observed in the winter of 2007, WNS has led to unprecedented mortality in several species of bats and may threaten more than 15 additional hibernating bat...
Geologic map of the Fish Creek Reservoir 7.5' quadrangle, Blaine County, Idaho
Betty Skipp, Theodore R. Brandt
2012, Scientific Investigations Map 3191
The Fish Creek Reservoir quadrangle in south-central Idaho lies on the north-central margin of the Cenozoic Snake River Plain at the southern end of the Pioneer Mountains. Rocks exposed in the quadrangle range in age from Paleozoic through Cenozoic. Mesozoic rocks are absent. Though Triassic and Jurassic sedimentary rocks may...
Landsat Data Continuity Mission
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3066
The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) is a partnership formed between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to place the next Landsat satellite in orbit in January 2013. The Landsat era that began in 1972 will become a nearly 41-year global land record...
Analyzing legacy U.S. Geological Survey geochemical databases using GIS: applications for a national mineral resource assessment
Douglas B. Yager, Albert H. Hofstra, Matthew Granitto
2012, Techniques and Methods 11-C5
This report emphasizes geographic information system analysis and the display of data stored in the legacy U.S. Geological Survey National Geochemical Database for use in mineral resource investigations. Geochemical analyses of soils, stream sediments, and rocks that are archived in the National Geochemical Database provide an extensive data source for...
Altitude, age, and quality of groundwater, Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District, eastern Nebraska, 1992 to 2009
Virginia L. McGuire, Derek W. Ryter, Amanda S. Flynn
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5036
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District (PMRNRD), conducted this study to map the water-level altitude of 2009 within the Elkhorn River Valley, Missouri River Valley, and Platte River Valley alluvial aquifers; to present the predevelopment potentiometric-surface altitude within the Dakota aquifer; and to...
Bayesian WLS/GLS regression for regional skewness analysis for regions with large crest stage gage networks
Andrea G. Veilleux, Jery R. Stedinger, David A. Eash
2012, Conference Paper, World environmental and water resources congress 2012: Crossing boundaries
This paper summarizes methodological advances in regional log-space skewness analyses that support flood-frequency analysis with the log Pearson Type III (LP3) distribution. A Bayesian Weighted Least Squares/Generalized Least Squares (B-WLS/B-GLS) methodology that relates observed skewness coefficient estimators to basin characteristics in conjunction with diagnostic statistics represents an extension of the...
Warming experiments underpredict plant phenological responses to climate change
Elizabeth M. Wolkovich, Benjamin I. Cook, Jenica M. Allen, Theresa Crimmins, Julio L. Betancourt, Steven E. Travers, Stephanie Pau, James Regetz, T. Jonathan Davies, Nathan J. B. Kraft, Toby R. Ault, Kjell Bolmgren, Susan J. Mazer, Gregory J. McCabe, Brian J. McGill, Camille Parmesan, Nicolas Salamin, Mark D. Schwartz, Elsa E. Cleland
2012, Nature 494-497
Warming experiments are increasingly relied on to estimate plant responses to global climate change. For experiments to provide meaningful predictions of future responses, they should reflect the empirical record of responses to temperature variability and recent warming, including advances in the timing of flowering and leafing. We compared phenology (the...
Comparison of acoustic doppler current profiler and Price AA mechanical current meter measurements made during the 2011 Mississippi River Flood
Patrick O’Brien, David Mueller, Thad Pratt
2012, Conference Paper, World environmental and water resources congress 2012: Crossing boundaries
The Mississippi River and Tributaries project performed as designed during the historic 2011 Mississippi River flood, with many of the operational decisions based on discharge targets as opposed to stage. Measurement of discharge at the Tarbert Landing, Mississippi range provides critical information used in operational decisions for the floodways located...
Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Assam, Bombay, Cauvery, and Krishna-Godavari Provinces, South Asia, 2011
T. R. Klett, Christopher J. Schenk, Craig J. Wandrey, Ronald R. Charpentier, Troy A. Cook, Michael E. Brownfield, Janet K. Pitman, Richard M. Pollastro
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3059
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated volumes of undiscovered, technically recoverable, conventional petroleum resources for the Assam, Bombay, Cauvery, and Krishna–Godavari Provinces, South Asia. The estimated mean volumes are as follows: (1) Assam Province, 273 million barrels of crude oil, 1,559 billion cubic feet of natural...
Automated delineation and characterization of watersheds for more than 3,000 surface-water-quality monitoring stations active in 2010 in Texas
Christy-Ann M. Archuleta, Sophia L. Gonzales, David R. Maltby II
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1077
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, developed computer scripts and applications to automate the delineation of watershed boundaries and compute watershed characteristics for more than 3,000 surface-water-quality monitoring stations in Texas that were active during 2010. Microsoft Visual Basic applications were developed...
A study of the spawning ecology and early life history survival of Bonneville Cutthroat Trout
Phaedra Budy, Sara Wood, Brett B. Roper
2012, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (32) 436-449
We completed a large‐scale field experiment in four tributaries of the Logan River, Utah, where the largest metapopulation of imperiled Bonneville cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii utah persists. We documented the spatial and temporal distributions of spawners, quantified substrate use versus substrate availability, and evaluated differences in hatch and emergence fry success...
American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus)
Theodore R. Simons, E. Nol, R. Boettcher
2012, Report, The Birds of North America
The American Oystercatcher is a large, conspicuous shorebird, common in coastal salt marshes and along sand beaches throughout the central part of its range. One of the few birds to specialize on bivalve mollusks living in saltwater, this species is completely restricted to marine habitats. Two races breed in North...
Dissolved pesticides, dissolved organic carbon, and water-quality characteristics in selected Idaho streams, April--December 2010
Timothy J. Reilly, Kelly L. Smalling, Emma R. Wilson, William A. Battaglin
2012, Data Series 667
Water-quality samples were collected from April through December 2010 from four streams in Idaho and analyzed for a suite of pesticides, including fungicides, by the U.S. Geological Survey. Water samples were collected from two agricultural and two nonagricultural (control) streams approximately biweekly from the beginning of the growing season (April)...
Geologic map of Mount Gareloi, Gareloi Island, Alaska
Michelle L. Coombs, Robert G. McGimsey, Brandon L. Browne
2012, Scientific Investigations Map 3145
Gareloi Island (lat 51.7° N., long 178.8° W.) is located in the Delarof Islands group of the Aleutian Islands, approximately 2,000 km west-southwest of Anchorage and 150 km west of Adak, the westernmost town in Alaska. This small (~8- x 10-km diam), uninhabited island is constructed exclusively of eruptive products...