Leopardus braccatus (Carnivora: Felidae)
Anita L. Barstow, David M. Leslie Jr.
2012, Mammalian Species (44) 16-25
Leopardus braccatus (Cope, 1889) is a small felid—not much larger than a domestic house cat—commonly called the Pantanal cat. No comprehensive surveys have been conducted to determine how many L. braccatus exist in the wild. It is found in humid, warm grasslands and wooded areas of extreme northwestern Argentina, southwestern and south- and...
Real-time seismic monitoring of instrumented hospital buildings
Erol Kalkan, Jon Peter B. Fletcher, William S. Leith, William S. McCarthy, Krishna Banga
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3028
In collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the U.S. Geological Survey's National Strong Motion Project has recently installed sophisticated seismic monitoring systems to monitor the structural health of two hospital buildings at the Memphis VA Medical Center in Tennessee. The monitoring systems in the Bed Tower and Spinal...
DOI Climate Science Centers--Regional science to address management priorities
Robin O'Malley
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3048
Our Nation's lands, waters, and ecosystems and the living and cultural resources they contain face myriad challenges from invasive species, the effects of changing land and water use, habitat fragmentation and degradation, and other influences. These challenges are compounded by increasing influences from a changing climate—higher temperatures, increasing droughts, floods,...
Seasonal use of shallow water habitat in the Lower Snake River reservoirs by juvenile fall Chinook salmon
Kenneth F. Tiffan, William P. Connor
2012, Report
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) is preparing a long term management plan for sediments that affect the authorized project purposes of the Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental, and Ice Harbor reservoirs (hereafter, the lower Snake River reservoirs), and the area from the mouth of the Snake River...
Water resources of the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, Genesee and Orleans counties, New York 2008-2010
William M. Kappel, Matthew B. Jennings
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5027
A 2-year study of the water resources of the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge) in western New York was carried out in 2009-2010 in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to assist the Refuge in the development of a 15-year Comprehensive Conservtion plan. The study focused on Oak...
Hunting influences the diel patterns in habitat selection by northern pintails Anas acuta
Michael L. Casazza, Peter S. Coates, Michael R. Miller, Cory T. Overton, Daniel R. Yparraguirre
2012, Wildlife Biology (18) 1-13
Northern pintail Anas acuta (hereafter pintail) populations wintering within Suisun Marsh, a large estuarine managed wetland near San Francisco Bay, California,USA, have declined markedly over the last four decades. The reasons for this decline are unclear. Information on how hunting and other factors influence the selection of vegetation types and...
Geospatial database for regional environmental assessment of central Colorado.
Stan E. Church, Carma A. San Juan, David L. Fey, Travis S. Schmidt, Terry L. Klein, Ed H. DeWitt, Richard B. Wanty, Philip L. Verplanck, Katharine A. Mitchell, Monique G. Adams, LaDonna M. Choate, Todor I. Todorov, Barnaby W. Rockwell, Luke McEachron, Michael W. Anthony
2012, Data Series 614
In conjunction with the future planning needs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted a detailed environmental assessment of the effects of historical mining on Forest Service lands in central Colorado. Stream sediment, macroinvertebrate, and various filtered and unfiltered water quality samples were collected...
Short-term response of Dicamptodon tenebrosus larvae to timber management in southwestern Oregon
Niels Leuthold, M. J. Adams, John P. Hayes
2012, Journal of Wildlife Management (76) 28-37
In the Pacific Northwest, previous studies have found a negative effect of timber management on the abundance of stream amphibians, but results have been variable and region specific. These studies have generally used survey methods that did not account for differences in capture probability and focused on stands that were...
Determination of streamflow of the Arkansas River near Bentley in south-central Kansas
Charles A. Perry
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5059
The Kansas Department of Agriculture, Division of Water Resources, requires that the streamflow of the Arkansas River just upstream from Bentley in south-central Kansas be measured or calculated before groundwater can be pumped from the well field. When the daily streamflow of the Arkansas River near Bentley is less than...
Channel-pattern and cross-section changes in selected reaches of Elkhead Creek, northwestern Colorado, 1938-2009
John G. Elliott, Steven J. Char
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5201
Elkhead Creek near Craig, Colorado, is a sinuous, meandering stream whose lower 9 river miles have been regulated by Elkhead Reservoir and Dam since 1974. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Colorado River Water Conservation District, conducted a study from 2009 to 2010 that evaluated channel-pattern and cross-section...
Advances in the simulation and automated measurement of well-sorted granular material: 1. Simulation
Daniel Buscombe, David M. Rubin
2012, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (117)
1. In this, the first of a pair of papers which address the simulation and automated measurement of well-sorted natural granular material, a method is presented for simulation of two-phase (solid, void) assemblages of discrete non-cohesive particles. The purpose is to have a flexible, yet computationally and theoretically simple, suite...
Advances in the simulation and automated measurement of well-sorted granular material: 2. Direct measures of particle properties
Daniel D. Buscombe, David M. Rubin
2012, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (117)
1. In this, the second of a pair of papers on the structure of well-sorted natural granular material (sediment), new methods are described for automated measurements from images of sediment, of: 1) particle-size standard deviation (arithmetic sorting) with and without apparent void fraction; and 2) mean particle size in material...
Assessing time-integrated dissolved concentrations and predicting toxicity of metals during diel cycling in streams
Laurie S. Balistrieri, David A. Nimick, Christopher A. Mebane
2012, Science of the Total Environment (425) 155-168
Evaluating water quality and the health of aquatic organisms is challenging in systems with systematic diel (24 hour) or less predictable runoff-induced changes in water composition. To advance our understanding of how to evaluate environmental health in these dynamic systems, field studies of diel cycling were conducted in two...
Dispersal of larval suckers at the Williamson River Delta, Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, 2006-09
Tamara M. Wood, Heather A. Hendrixson, Douglas F. Markle, Charles S. Erdman, Summer M. Burdick, Craig M. Ellsworth, Norman L. Buccola
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5016
An advection/diffusion modeling approach was used to simulate the transport of larval suckers from spawning areas in the Williamson River, through the newly restored Williamson River Delta, to Upper Klamath Lake. The density simulations spanned the years of phased restoration, from 2006/2007 prior to any levee breaching, to 2008 when...
Effects of native forest restoration on soil hydraulic properties, Auwahi, Maui, Hawaiian Islands
Kimberlie S. Perkins, John R. Nimmo, Arthur C. Medeiros
2012, Geophysical Research Letters (39)
Over historic time Hawai'i's dryland forests have been largely replaced by grasslands for grazing livestock. On-going efforts have been undertaken to restore dryland forests to bring back native species and reduce erosion. The reestablishment of native ecosystems on land severely degraded by long-term alternative use requires reversal of the impacts...
Transformation through time: How wildlife disease became a focus of conservation
Milton Friend
2012, The Wildlife Professional (6) 24-27
When I began my career as an assistant waterfowl biologist in 1956, wildlife disease was not a major concern for conservation agencies. Some states— such as California, Michigan, New York, Wyoming, and Colorado— had small internal wildlife disease programs to investigate wildlife mortality events, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife...
Threshold effects of flood duration on the vegetation and soils of the Upper Mississippi River floodplain, USA
Nathan R. De Jager, Meredith Thomsen, Yao Yin
2012, Forest Ecology and Management (270) 135-146
Most large rivers have experienced major changes in hydrology and land use over the past century, with concomitant effects on sedimentation, nutrient cycling and biodiversity. To restore and/or enhance these ecosystems, managers need to know where their efforts are most likely to succeed under current hydrologic regimes as well as...
Spatially explicit land-use and land-cover scenarios for the Great Plains of the United States
Terry L. Sohl, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Kristi L. Sayler, Michelle A. Bouchard, Ryan R. Reker, Stacie L. Bennett, Rachel R. Sleeter, Ronald L. Kanengieter, Zhi-Liang Zhu
2012, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment (153) 1-15
The Great Plains of the United States has undergone extensive land-use and land-cover change in the past 150 years, with much of the once vast native grasslands and wetlands converted to agricultural crops, and much of the unbroken prairie now heavily grazed. Future land-use change in the region could have...
Linking urbanization to the Biological Condition Gradient (BCG) for stream ecosystems in the Northeastern United States using a Bayesian network approach
Roxolana Kashuba, Gerard McMahon, Thomas F. Cuffney, Song Qian, Kenneth Reckhow, Jeroen Gerritsen, Susan Davies
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5030
Urban development alters important physical, chemical, and biological processes that define urban stream ecosystems. An approach was developed for quantifying the effects of these processes on aquatic biota, and then linking those effects to endpoints that can be used for environmental management. These complex, interacting systems are challenging to model...
Resistance to plague among black-tailed prairie dog populations
Tonie E. Rocke, Judy Williamson, Kacy R. Cobble, Joseph D. Busch, Michael F. Antolin, David M. Wagner
2012, Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases (12) 111-116
In some rodent species frequently exposed to plague outbreaks caused by Yersinia pestis, resistance to the disease has evolved as a population trait. As a first step in determining if plague resistance has developed in black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus), animals captured from colonies in a plague-free region (South Dakota)...
Time series geophysical monitoring of permanganate injections and in situ chemical oxidation of PCE, OU1 area, Savage Superfund Site, Milford, NH, USA
Philip T. Harte, Thor E. Smith, John Williams, James R. Degnan
2012, Journal of Contaminant Hydrology (132) 58-74
In situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) treatment with sodium permanganate, an electrically conductive oxidant, provides a strong electrical signal for tracking of injectate transport using time series geophysical surveys including direct current (DC) resistivity and electromagnetic (EM) methods. Effective remediation is dependent upon placing the oxidant in close contact with the...
Modeling transport and deposition of the Mekong River sediment
Zuo Xue, Ruoying He, J. Paul Liu, John C. Warner
2012, Continental Shelf Research (37) 66-78
A Coupled Wave–Ocean–SedimentTransport Model was used to hindcast coastal circulation and fine sedimenttransport on the Mekong shelf in southeastern Asian in 2005. Comparisons with limited observations showed that the model simulation captured the regional patterns and temporal variability of surface wave, sea level, and suspended sediment concentration reasonably well. Significant...
Archive of single beam and swath bathymetry data collected nearshore of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi, from West Ship Island, Mississippi, to Dauphin Island, Alabama: Methods and data report for USGS Cruises 08CCT01 and 08CCT02, July 2008, and 09CCT03 and 09CCT04, June 2009
Nancy T. DeWitt, James G. Flocks, Elizabeth A. Pendleton, Mark E. Hansen, B.J. Reynolds, Kyle W. Kelso, Dana S. Wiese, Charles R. Worley
2012, Data Series 675
During the summers of 2008 and 2009 the USGS conducted bathymetric surveys from West Ship Island, Miss., to Dauphin Island, Ala., as part of the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM) Ecosystem Change and Hazard Susceptibility project. The survey area extended from the shoreline out to approximately 2 kilometers and...
Simulation of streamflows and basin-wide hydrologic variables over several climate-change scenarios, Methow River basin, Washington
Frank D. Voss, Mark C. Mastin
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5031
The purpose of this project was to demonstrate the capabilities of an existing watershed model and downscaling procedures to provide simulated hydrological data over various greenhouse gas emission scenarios for use in the Methow River framework prototype. An existing watershed model was used to simulate daily time series of streamflow...
Geologic framework for the national assessment of carbon dioxide storage resources: Bighorn Basin, Wyoming and Montana: Chapter A in Geologic framework for the national assessment of carbon dioxide storage resources
Jacob A. Covault, Mark L. Buursink, William H. Craddock, Matthew D. Merrill, Madalyn S. Blondes, Mayur A. Gosai, P.A. Freeman
Peter D. Warwick, M.D. Corum, editor(s)
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1024-A
The 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (Public Law 110–140) directs the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to conduct a national assessment of potential geologic storage resources for carbon dioxide (CO2). The methodology used for the national CO2 assessment follows that of previous USGS work. The methodology is non-economic and intended...
