Analysis of trends in climate, streamflow, and stream temperature in north coastal California
Mary Ann Madej
C. Nicholas Medley, Glenn Patterson, Melanie J. Parker, editor(s)
2011, Conference Paper, Observing, studying, and managing for change - Proceedings of the Fourth Interagency Conference on Research in the Watersheds: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2011–5169
As part of a broader project analyzing trends in climate, streamflow, vegetation, salmon, and ocean conditions in northern California national park units, we compiled average monthly air temperature and precipitation data from 73 climate stations, streamflow data from 21 river gaging stations, and limited stream temperature data from salmon-bearing rivers...
Potential climate change effects on water tables and pyrite oxidation in headwater catchments in Colorado
Richard M. Webb, M. Alisa Mast, Andrew H. Manning, David W. Clow, Donald H. Campbell
C. Nicholas Medley, Glenn Patterson, Melanie J. Parker, editor(s)
2011, Conference Paper, Observing, studying, and managing for change - Proceedings of the Fourth Interagency Conference on Research in the Watersheds: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2011–5169
A water, energy, and biogeochemical model (WEBMOD) was constructed to simulate hydrology and pyrite oxidation for the period October 1992 through September 1997. The hydrologic model simulates processes in Loch Vale, a 6.6-km² granitic watershed that drains the east side of the Continental Divide. Parameters describing pyrite oxidation were derived...
Forest bird monitoring protocol for strategic habitat conservation and endangered species management on O'ahu Forest National Wildlife Refuge, Island of O'ahu, Hawai'i
Richard J. Camp, P. Marcos Gorresen, Paul C. Banko
2011, Report
This report describes the results of a pilot forest bird survey and a consequent forest bird monitoring protocol that was developed for the O'ahu Forest National Wildlife Refuge, O'ahu Island, Hawai'i. The pilot survey was conducted to inform aspects of the monitoring protocol and to provide a baseline with which...
Nest predation and circulating corticosterone levels within and among species
Joseph J. Fontaine, Elena Arriero, Hubert Schwabl, Thomas E. Martin
2011, The Condor (113) 825-833
Variation in the risk of predation to offspring can influence the expression of reproductive strategies both within and among species. Appropriate expression of reproductive strategies in environments that differ in predation risk can have clear advantages for fitness. Although adult-predation risk appears to influence glucocorticosteroid levels, leading to changes in...
Severe bill deformity of an American Kestrel wintering in California
William M. Iko, Robert J. Dusek
2011, Western Birds (42) 251-254
During a recent survey for West Nile virus in wild birds around the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge, Imperial County, California (Dusek et al. 2010), we captured a female American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) with a severe bill deformity (Figure 1). The kestrel was captured on 9 March 2006,...
Editor’s message: Groundwater modeling fantasies - Part 2, down to earth
Clifford I. Voss
2011, Hydrogeology Journal (19) 1455-1458
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art. (Frédéric Chopin, a musician and composer, quoted in If Not God, Then What? by Fost 2007)Despite the dubious developments...
Editor’s message: Groundwater modeling fantasies - Part 1, adrift in the details
Clifford I. Voss
2011, Hydrogeology Journal (19) 1281-1284
Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it. …Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it. (Epigrams in Programming by Alan Perlis, a computer scientist; Perlis 1982).A doctoral student creating a groundwater model of a regional aquifer put individual...
Quality of our groundwater resources: Arsenic and fluoride
D. Kirk Nordstrom
2011, Geosciences (13) 82-87
Groundwater often contains arsenic or fluoride concentrations too high for drinking or cooking. These constituents, often naturally occurring, are not easy to remove. The right combination of natural or manmade conditions can lead to elevated arsenic or fluoride which includes continental source rocks, high alkalinity and pH, reducing conditions for...
Evaluating the potential for remote bathymetric mapping of a turbid, sand-bed river: 2. application to hyperspectral image data from the Platte River
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel, Brandon T. Overstreet
2011, Water Resources Research (47)
This study examined the possibility of mapping depth from optical image data in turbid, sediment-laden channels. Analysis of hyperspectral images from the Platte River indicated that depth retrieval in these environments is feasible, but might not be highly accurate. Four methods of calibrating image-derived depth estimates were evaluated. The first...
Evaluating the potential for remote bathymetric mapping of a turbid, sand-bed river: 1. Field spectroscopy and radiative transfer modeling
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel, Brandon T. Overstreet
2011, Water Resources Research (47)
Remote sensing offers an efficient means of mapping bathymetry in river systems, but this approach has been applied primarily to clear-flowing, gravel bed streams. This study used field spectroscopy and radiative transfer modeling to assess the feasibility of spectrally based depth retrieval in a sand-bed river with a higher suspended...
An evaluation of the Bayesian approach to fitting the N-mixture model for use with pseudo-replicated count data
S.G. Toribo, B. R. Gray, S. Liang
2011, Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation (82) 1135-1143
The N-mixture model proposed by Royle in 2004 may be used to approximate the abundance and detection probability of animal species in a given region. In 2006, Royle and Dorazio discussed the advantages of using a Bayesian approach in modelling animal abundance and occurrence using a hierarchical N-mixture model. N-mixture...
An automated device for provoking and capturing wildlife calls
David E. Ausband, Jesse Skrivseth, Michael S. Mitchell
2011, Wildlife Society Bulletin (35) 498-503
Some animals exhibit call-and-response behaviors that can be exploited to facilitate detection. Traditionally, acoustic surveys that use call-and-respond techniques have required an observer's presence to perform the broadcast, record the response, or both events. This can be labor-intensive and may influence animal behavior and, thus, survey results. We developed an...
The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth
David M. J. S. Bowman, Jennifer Balch, Paulo Artaxo, William J. Bond, Mark A. Cochrane, Carla M. D'Antonio, Fay H. Johnston, Ruth DeFries, Jon E. Keeley, Meg A. Krawchuk, Christian A. Kull, Michelle Mack, Max A. Moritz, Stephen Pyne, Christopher I. Roos, Andrew C. Scott, Navjot S. Sodhi, Thomas W. Swetnam
2011, Journal of Biogeography (38) 2223-2236
Humans and their ancestors are unique in being a fire‐making species, but ‘natural’ (i.e. independent of humans) fires have an ancient, geological history on Earth. Natural fires have influenced biological evolution and global biogeochemical cycles, making fire integral to the functioning of some biomes. Globally, debate rages about the impact...
Alternative states of a semiarid grassland ecosystem: implications for ecosystem services
Mark E. Miller, R. Travis Belote, Matthew A. Bowker, Steven L. Garman
2011, Ecosphere (2)
Ecosystems can shift between alternative states characterized by persistent differences in structure, function, and capacity to provide ecosystem services valued by society. We examined empirical evidence for alternative states in a semiarid grassland ecosystem where topographic complexity and contrasting management regimes have led to spatial variations in levels of livestock...
Stress conditions inferable from modern magnitudes: development of a model of fault maturity
George L. Choy
P. Bormann, S. Wendt, editor(s)
2011, Book chapter, New Manual of Seismological Observatory Practice 2
Differences in macroinvertebrate community structure in streams and rivers with different hydrologic regimes in the semi-arid Colorado Plateau
Matthew P. Miller, Anne M.D. Brasher
2011, River Systems (19) 225-238
Aquatic macroinvertebrates are sensitive to changes in their chemical and physical environment, and as such, serve as excellent indicators of overall ecosystem health. Moreover, temporal and spatial differences in macroinvertebrate community structure can be used to investigate broad issues in aquatic science, such as the hypothesis that changes in climate...
Assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources of Thailand
Chris Schenk
2011, PTIT Focus (25) 38-42
The U.S. Geological Survey estimated mean volumes of 1.6 billion barrels of undiscovered conventional oil and 17 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered conventional natural gas in three geologic provinces of Thailand using a geology-based methodology. Most of the undiscovered conventional oil and gas resource is estimated to be in the...
Offshore sand-shoal development and evolution of Petit Bois Pass, Mississippi-Alabama Barrier Islands, Mississippi, USA
James G. Flocks, Kyle W. Kelso, Gregory C. Twichell, Noreen A. Buster, John N. Baehr
Julie D. Rosati, Ping Wang, Tiffany M. Roberts, editor(s)
2011, Book, The Proceedings of the Coastal Sediments 2011
Assessment of recently collected geophysical and sediment-core data identifies an extensive shoal field located off Dauphin and Petit Bois Islands. The shoals are the product of Pleistocene fluvial deposition and Holocene marine-transgressive processes, and their position and orientation oblique to the modern shoreline has been stable over the past century....
Use of stable isotopes and mercury to assess trophic positions of black carp and other large fishes in the Red-Atchafalaya River system, Louisiana, USA
L. Nico, A. Demopoulos, D. Gualtieri, C. Wieser
D.C. Chapman, M.H. Hoff, editor(s)
2011, Book chapter, Invasive Asian Carps in North America: American Fisheries Society Symposium 74
A new strategy for developing Vs30 maps
David J. Wald, Leslie McWhirter, Eric Thompson, Amanda S. Hering
2011, Book
Despite obvious limitations as a proxy for site amplification, the use of time-averaged shear-wave velocity over the top 30m (Vs30) is useful and widely practiced, most notably through its use as an explanatory variable in ground motion prediction equations (and thus hazard maps and ShakeMaps, among other applications). Local, regional,...
If the creeks don't rise: the May 2010 Flood in Nashville
Rodney R. Knight, William J. Wolfe, David E. Ladd
2011, Water Resources Impact (13) 9-12
The aftermath, recovery, and lessons of the future following a major flood that inundated the greater Nashville area one year ago are the subjects of this article. The authors discuss what led up to the event, its impacts, and what, if anything, can be done to prevent or diminish the...
Ranavirus outbreaks in amphibian populations of northern Idaho
Danelle M. Russell, Caren S. Goldberg, Laura Sprague, Lisette P. Waits, D. Earl Green, Krysten L. Schuler, Erica Bree Rosenblum
2011, Herpetological Review (42) 223-225
Ranavirus outbreaks, caused by pathogens in the genus Ranavirus (Family Iridoviridae), were the largest single cause of reported amphibian mass mortality events in the United States from 1996–2001 (Green et al. 2002). Mortality events associated with ranaviruses have been documented on five continents and throughout the latitudes and elevations where...
Diet overlap of top-level predators in recent sympatry: bull trout and nonnative lake trout
Christopher S. Guy, Thomas E. McMahon, Wade A. Fredenberg, Clinton J. Smith, David W. Garfield, Benjamin S. Cox
2011, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (2) 183-189
The establishment of nonnative lake trout Salvelinus namaycush in lakes containing lacustrine–adfluvial bull trout Salvelinus confluentus often results in a precipitous decline in bull trout abundance. The exact mechanism for the decline is unknown, but one hypothesis is related to competitive exclusion for prey resources. We had the rare opportunity...
The fate and transport of nitrate in shallow groundwater in northwestern Mississippi, USA
Heather L. Welch, Christopher T. Green, Richard H. Coupe
2011, Hydrogeology Journal (19) 1239-1252
Agricultural contamination of groundwater in northwestern Mississippi, USA, has not been studied extensively, and subsurface fluxes of agricultural chemicals have been presumed minimal. To determine the factors controlling transport of nitrate-N into the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer, a study was conducted from 2006 to 2008 to estimate fluxes of...
The evaluation of a rake method to quantify submersed vegetation in the Upper Mississippi River
Yao Yin, Rebecca M. Kreiling
2011, Hydrobiologia (675) 187-195
A long-handled, double-headed garden rake was used to collect submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV) and compared to in-boat visual inspection to record species presence at 67 individual sites. Six rake subsamples were taken at each site and a rake density rating was given to each species collected in the subsamples. Presence...
