Population estimates and monitoring guidelines for endangered Laysan Teal, Anas Laysanensis, at Midway Atoll: Pilot study results 2008-2010.
Michelle H. Reynolds, Kevin W. Brinck, Leona Laniawe
2011, Technical Report HCSU-021
Accurate estimates of population size are often crucial to determining status and planning recovery of endangered species. The ability to detect trends in survival and population size over time enables conservation managers to make effective decisions for species and refuge management. During 2004–2007, the translocated population of endangered Laysan Teal...
Mountain Glaciers and Ice Caps
Maria Ananichheva, Anthony Arendt, Jon-Ove Hagen, Regine Hock, Edward G. Josberger, R. Dan Moore, William Tad Pfeffer, Gabriel J. Wolken
2011, Book chapter, Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA) 2011
In addition to the Greenland Ice Sheet, the Arctic contains a diverse array of smaller glaciers ranging from small cirque glaciers to large ice caps with areas up to 20 000 km 2 . Together, these glaciers cover an area of more than 400 000 km 2 , over half the global area of...
The hypothalamus–pituitary–thyroid axis in teleosts and amphibians: Endocrine disruption and its consequences to natural populations
J.A. Carr, Reynaldo Patino
2011, General and Comparative Endocrinology (170) 299-312
Teleosts and pond-breeding amphibians may be exposed to a wide variety of anthropogenic, waterborne contaminants that affect the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis. Because thyroid hormone is required for their normal development and reproduction, the potential impact of HPT-disrupting contaminants on natural teleost and amphibian populations raises special concern. There is laboratory...
Terrestrial forest management plan for Palmyra Atoll
Stacie A. Hathaway, Kathryn McEachern, Robert N. Fisher
2011, Open-File Report 2011-1007
This 'Terrestrial Forest Management Plan for Palmyra Atoll' was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Palmyra Program to refine and expand goals and objectives developed through the Conservation Action Plan process. It is one in a series of adaptive management plans designed to achieve...
Elevation of the March - April 2010 flood high water in selected river reaches in central and eastern Massachusetts
Phillip J. Zarriello, Gardner C. Bent
2011, Open-File Report 2010-1315
A series of widespread, large, low-pressure systems in southern New England in late February through late March 2010 resulted in record, or near record, rainfall and runoff. The total rainfall in the region during this period ranged from about 17 to 25 inches, which coupled with seasonal low evaporation, resulted...
Non-native fish control below Glen Canyon Dam - Report from a structured decision-making project
Michael C. Runge, Ellen Bean, David Smith, Sonja Kokos
2011, Open-File Report 2011-1012
This report describes the results of a structured decision-making project by the U.S. Geological Survey to provide substantive input to the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) for use in the preparation of an Environmental Assessment concerning control of non-native fish below Glen Canyon Dam. A forum was created to allow the...
Relative abundance and distribution of fishes and crayfish at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Nye County, Nevada, 2007-08
G. Gary Scoppettone, Peter Rissler, Danielle Johnson, Mark Hereford
2011, Open-File Report 2011-1017
This study provides baseline data of native and non-native fish populations in Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), Nye County, Nevada, that can serve as a gauge in native fish enhancement efforts. In support of Carson Slough restoration, comprehensive surveys of Ash Meadows NWR fishes were conducted seasonally from fall...
Overview of the ARkStorm scenario
Keith Porter, Anne Wein, Charles N. Alpers, Allan Baez, Patrick L. Barnard, James Carter, Alessandra Corsi, James Costner, Dale Cox, Tapash Das, Mike Dettinger, James Done, Charles Eadie, Marcia Eymann, Justin Ferris, Prasad Gunturi, Mimi Hughes, Robert Jarrett, Laurie Johnson, Hanh Dam Le-Griffin, David Mitchell, Suzette Morman, Paul Neiman, Anna Olsen, Suzanne Perry, Geoffrey Plumlee, Martin Ralph, David Reynolds, Adam Rose, Kathleen Schaefer, Julie Serakos, William Siembieda, Jonathan D. Stock, David Strong, Ian Sue Wing, Alex Tang, Pete Thomas, Ken Topping, Chris Wills, Lucile Jones
2011, Open-File Report 2010-1312
The U.S. Geological Survey, Multi Hazards Demonstration Project (MHDP) uses hazards science to improve resiliency of communities to natural disasters including earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, landslides, floods and coastal erosion. The project engages emergency planners, businesses, universities, government agencies, and others in preparing for major natural disasters. The project also helps...
Upper Colorado River Basin Climate Effects Network
Jayne Belnap, Donald Campbell, Jeff Kershner
2011, Fact Sheet 2010-3092
The Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) Climate Effects Network (CEN) is a science team established to provide information to assist land managers in future decision making processes by providing a better understanding of how future climate change, land use, invasive species, altered fire cycles, human systems, and the interactions among...
Characterization of hydrology and salinity in the Dolores project area, McElmo Creek region, southwest Colorado, water years 1978-2006
Rodney J. Richards, Kenneth J. Leib
2011, Scientific Investigations Report 2010-5218
Increasing salinity loading in the Colorado River has become a major concern for agricultural and municipal water supplies. The Colorado Salinity Control Act was implemented in 1974 to protect and enhance the quality of water in the Colorado River Basin. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of...
Approaches to highly parameterized inversion: Pilot-point theory, guidelines, and research directions
John E. Doherty, Michael N. Fienen, Randall J. Hunt
2011, Scientific Investigations Report 2010-5168
Pilot points have been used in geophysics and hydrogeology for at least 30 years as a means to bridge the gap between estimating a parameter value in every cell of a model and subdividing models into a small number of homogeneous zones. Pilot points serve as surrogate parameters at which...
Cyclic spattering, seismic tremor, and surface fluctuation within a perched lava channel, Kilauea Volcano
Matthew R. Patrick, Tim R. Orr, David C. Wilson, David C. Dow, R. Freeman
2011, Bulletin of Volcanology (73) 639-653
In late 2007, a perched lava channel, built up to 45 m above the preexisting surface, developed during the ongoing eruption near Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō cone on Kīlauea Volcano’s east rift zone. The lava channel was segmented into four pools extending over a total of 1.4 km. From late October to mid-December, a...
Geochemical characteristics of Holocene laminated sapropel (unit II) and underlying lacustrine unit III in the Black Sea
Walter E. Dean, Michael A. Arthur
2011, Open-File Report 2010-1323
eg 1 of the 1988 R/V Knorr expeditions to the Black Sea recovered 90 gravity and box cores. The longest recovery by gravity cores was about 3 meters, with an average of about 2.5 meters, recovering all of the Holocene and upper Pleistocene sections in the Black Sea. During the...
Use of cover habitat by bull trout, Salvelinus confluentus, and lake trout, Salvelinus namaycush, in a laboratory environment
Michael H. Meeuwig, Christopher S. Guy, Wade A. Fredenberg
2011, Environmental Biology of Fishes (90) 367-378
Lacustrine-adfluvial bull trout, Salvelinus confluentus, migrate from spawning and rearing streams to lacustrine environments as early as age 0. Within lacustrine environments, cover habitat provides refuge from potential predators and is a resource that is competed for if limiting. Competitive interactions between bull trout and other species could result in bull...
Distribution and habitat associations of breeding secretive marsh birds in Louisiana's Mississippi Alluvial Valley
Jonathan J. Valente, Sammy L. King, R. Randy Wilson
2011, Wetlands (31) 1-10
Populations of many North American secretive marsh birds (SMBs) have declined in recent decades, partially as a function of wetland loss. Protecting and restoring appropriate habitat for these species is contingent upon understanding the habitat features they utilize. We investigated breeding distributions of SMBs in northeast Louisiana at 118 wetlands...
Does prescribed fire benefit wetland vegetation?
C. Flores, D.L. Bounds, D.E. Ruby
2011, Wetlands (31) 35-44
The effects of fire on wetland vegetation in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States are poorly known, despite the historical use of fire by federal, state, and private landowners in the Chesapeake Bay Region. Prescribed fire is widely used by land managers to promote vegetation that is beneficial to...
Seasonal use of a New England estuary by foraging contingents of migratory striped bass
Martha E. Mather, Sarah M. Pautzke, John T. Finn, Linda A. Deegan, Robert M. Muth
2011, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (139) 257-269
Using acoustic telemetry on migratory striped bass Morone saxatilis in Plum Island Estuary (PIE), Massachusetts, we found that striped bass (335–634 mm total length) tagged in the spring and summer of 2005 (n = 14) and 2006 (n = 46) stayed in the estuary for an average of 66.0 d in 2005 and 72.2...
How systematic age underestimation can impede understanding of fish population dynamics: Lessons learned from a Lake Superior cisco stock
Daniel L. Yule, Jason D. Stockwell, J.A. Black, Ken I. Cullis, Gary A. Cholwek, Jared T. Myers
2011, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (137) 481-495
Systematic underestimation of fish age can impede understanding of recruitment variability and adaptive strategies (like longevity) and can bias estimates of survivorship. We suspected that previous estimates of annual survival (S; range = 0.20-0.44) for Lake Superior ciscoes Coregonus artedi developed from scale ages were biased low. To test this hypothesis, we...
Sampling effort and estimates of species richness based on prepositioned area electrofisher samples
Zachary H. Bowen, Mary C. Freeman
2011, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (18) 144-153
Estimates of species richness based on electrofishing data are commonly used to describe the structure of fish communities. One electrofishing method for sampling riverine fishes that has become popular in the last decade is the prepositioned area electrofisher (PAE). We investigated the relationship between sampling effort and fish...
Structural and functional effects of herbicides on non-target organisms in aquatic ecosystems with an emphasis on atrazine
James Fairchild
Andreas Kortekamp, editor(s)
2011, Book chapter, Herbicides and environment
Herbicide use has increased dramatically around the world over the past 6 decades (Gianessi and Reigner, 2007). Few herbicides were in use in the 1950s. However, by 2001 approximately 1.14 billion kilograms of herbicides were applied globally for the control of undesireable vegetation in agricultural, silvicultural, lawncare, aquacultural, and irrigation/recreational...
Thermal marking of Atlantic salmon otoliths
B. H. Letcher, T.D. Terrick
2011, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (18) 406-410
By exposing fry of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar to various temperature regimes, we determined conditions required to produce a readable thermal otolith mark. Marks were quantified by using a darkness index that represented the number of times darker the mark was than the background. Minimum requirements for a strong mark were 1...
Relationship between vegetation coverage and abundance, size, and diet of juvenile largemouth bass during winter
L.E. Miranda, L.L. Pugh
2011, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (17) 601-610
Juvenile largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides were collected by electrofishing during October through March 1992–1994 from coves (≤25 ha) covered with aquatic macrophytes over 1–65% of their area. Mean total length of juvenile largemouth bass was highest in coves with the least vegetated cover, but increase in mean length between October and March...
Effects of variable recruitment on catch-curve analysis for crappie populations
M. S. Allen
2011, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (17) 202-205
Catch-curve analysis is frequently used to estimate total annual mortality (A) of exploited fishes, but the method assumes constant recruitment. Because populations of crappie Pomoxis spp. have exhibited large fluctuations in recruitment, I conducted simulations to assess the amount of variability in recruitment that precludes the use of a catch curve and...
Age at sexual maturity, sex ratio, fecundity, and longevity of isolated headwater populations of westslope cutthroat trout
Christopher C. Downs, Robert G. White, Bradely B. Shepard
2011, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (17) 85-92
We sampled 19 isolated headwater populations of westslope cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi in Montana to provide estimates of fecundity, longevity, sex ratio, and age at sexual maturity. Fecundity was estimated for 31 fish collected from two streams in the upper Missouri River drainage. Females smaller than 149 mm fork length (FL)...
Passage and behavior of adult American shad in an experimental louver bypass system
B. Kynard, C. Buerkett
2011, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (17) 734-742
We tested 436 adult American shad Alosa sapidissima in an experimental louver bypass system, which was similar to a system operating at Holyoke Dam, Massachusetts, to determine guidance and passage efficiency and to study fish response to stimuli from physical structures, light intensity, and water velocity. Groups of 5–29 fish were exposed...
