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In the fall and early winter of 2009, a demonstration project was done at Santa Cruz Harbor, California, to determine if 450 m3/day of predominantly (71 percent) mud-sized sediment could be dredged from the inner portion of the harbor and discharged to the coastal ocean without significant impacts to the...

The first eruptive activity at Kīlauea Volcano’s summit in 25 years began in March 2008 with the opening of a 35-m-wide vent in Halema‘uma‘u crater. The new activity has produced prominent very-long-period (VLP) signals corresponding with two new behaviors: episodic tremor bursts and small explosive events, both of which represent degassing...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, collected borehole geophysical logs in 18 boreholes and interpreted the data along with logs from 19 additional boreholes as part of an ongoing, collaborative investigation at three environmental restoration sites in Machiasport, Maine. These sites, located on...

Network analysis is on the rise across scientific disciplines because of its ability to reveal complex, and often emergent, patterns and dynamics. Nonetheless, a growing concern in network analysis is the use of limited data for constructing networks. This concern is strikingly relevant to ecology and conservation biology, where network...

This report documents a Newton formulation of MODFLOW-2005, called MODFLOW-NWT. MODFLOW-NWT is a standalone program that is intended for solving problems involving drying and rewetting nonlinearities of the unconfined groundwater-flow equation. MODFLOW-NWT must be used with the Upstream-Weighting (UPW) Package for calculating intercell conductances in a different manner than is...

The Colorado wind-turbine data series provides geospatial data for all wind turbines established within the State as of August 2009. Attributes specific to each turbine include: turbine location, manufacturer and model, rotor diameter, hub height, rotor height, potential megawatt output, land ownership, and county. Wind energy facility data for each...

One of the greatest challenges for conserving grassland, prairie scrub, and shrub-steppe ecosystems is maintaining prairie dog populations across the landscape. Of the four species of prairie dogs found in the United States, the Utah prairie dog (Cynomys parvidens) is listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as threatened, the...

The New Mexico wind-turbine data series provides geospatial data for all wind turbines established within the State as of August 2009. Attributes specific to each turbine include: turbine location, manufacturer and model, rotor diameter, hub height, rotor height, potential megawatt output, land ownership, and county. Wind energy facility data for...

The disease-associated prion protein (PrPTSE), the probable etiological agent of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), is resistant to degradation and can persist in the environment. Lichens, mutualistic symbioses containing fungi, algae, bacteria and occasionally cyanobacteria, are ubiquitous in the environment and have evolved unique biological activities allowing their survival in...

In eastern North America, after the young fledge, both adult and juvenile mature-forest birds may use regenerating clearcuts, although which species frequent early-successional forest and during which life stages is not well documented. To assess whether birds nesting in mature forest in north-central Minnesota use...

This database is a compilation of published and nonconfidential unpublished coal data from Alaska. Although coal occurs in isolated areas throughout Alaska, this study includes data only from the Cook Inlet and North Slope areas. The data include entries from and interpretations of oil and gas well logs, coal-core geophysical...

We described the seasonal distribution of Geographic Positioning System (GPS)-collared mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) in Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks to evaluate aerial survey sampling designs and provide general information for park managers. This work complemented a companion study published elsewhere of aerial detection biases of mountain...

Federal land managers are increasingly implementing fuels-reduction treatments throughout the western United States with objectives of ecological restoration and fire hazard reduction in pinyon-juniper (Pinus spp.-Juniperus spp.) woodlands. The pinyon-juniper woodland ecosystem complex is highly variable across the western landscape, as is bird community composition. We investigated relations between...

Recent interdisciplinary studies by the U.S. Geological Survey have resulted in substantial progress toward understanding the influence that climate and hydrology have on the geochemical signatures of mineral deposits and the resulting mine wastes in the eastern United States. Specific areas of focus include the release, transport, and fate of...

Soil gas and soil were assessed for contaminants at the Patterson Anti-Tank Range at Fort Gordon, Georgia, from October 2009 to September 2010. The assessment included identifying and delineating organic contaminants present in soil-gas samplers from the area estimated to be the Patterson Anti-Tank Range and in the hyporheic zone...

Soil gas and soil were assessed for contaminants at the South Prong Creek Disposal Area at Fort Gordon, Georgia, from October 2009 to September 2010. The assessment included identifying and delineating organic contaminants present in soil-gas and inorganic contaminants present in soil samples collected from the area estimated to be...

We report results of yearly measurements of the diffuse CO2 flux and shallow soil temperatures collected since 2006 across two sets of tree-kill areas at Long Valley Caldera, California. These data provide background information about CO2 discharge during a period with moderate seismicity, but little to no deformation. The tree...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), and Cornell University carried out a cooperative 2-year study from the fall of 2004 through the fall of 2006 to characterize the potential effects of recreational-flow releases from Lake Abanakee on natural resources in the Indian...

We describe a successful nest defense strategy of an adult Gavia immer (Common Loon) during an attempted predation event by a Nevison vison (American Mink) at Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge, NH. It is suspected that mink occasionally depredate loon nests, but defense strategies have not been described previously....

Atlantic salmon Salmo salar in the USA have declined dramatically and their persistence is heavily dependent on stocking juvenile fish, predominantly fry. The success of stocking hatchery fry is evaluated annually throughout New England by electrofishing surveys targeting age-1 parr. The objective of this study was to examine temporal trends in Atlantic...

Geophysical techniques are an increasingly important tool for scientific investigations, environmental planning, and resource management. During 2005-10 the U.S. Geological Survey Texas Water Science Center greatly expanded its capabilities of using surface and borehole geophysical techniques to gain insights into how groundwater systems work and the occurrence and distribution of...

U.S. Geological Survey scientists and cooperating partners are examining the potential risk to aquatic resources (for example, wetlands, streams) by contamination from saline waters (brine) produced by petroleum development in the Williston Basin of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The primary goals of this study are to provide a...

ModelMate is a graphical user interface designed to facilitate use of model-analysis programs with models. This initial version of ModelMate supports one model-analysis program, UCODE_2005, and one model software program, MODFLOW-2005. ModelMate can be used to prepare input files for UCODE_2005, run UCODE_2005, and display analysis results. A link to...

Functional relationships involving species richness may be unimodal, monotonically increasing, monotonically decreasing, bimodal, multimodal, U-shaped, or with no discernable pattern. The unimodal relationships are the most interesting because they suggest dynamic, nonequilibrium community processes. For that reason, they are also contentious. In this paper, we provide a wide-ranging review of...

Geophysical surveys around the Chandeleur Islands provide the necessary data to map the thickness and distribution of the Holocene deposit associated with this barrier island system. This system rests uncomformably on St. Bernard Delta deposits of the Mississippi Delta plain and is thinnest under the central part of the island...