Flood-inundation maps for Nimishillen Creek near North Industry, Ohio, 2019
Matthew T. Whitehead
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5083
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 4-mile reach of Nimishillen Creek near North Industry, Ohio, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District, Ohio, and the Stark County Board of Commissioners. The flood-inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation...
Integrating stream gage data and Landsat imagery to complete time-series of surface water extents in Central Valley, California
Jessica J. Walker, Christopher E. Soulard, Roy E. Petrakis
2019, International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation (84)
Accurate monitoring of surface water location and extent is critical for the management of diverse water resource phenomena. The multi-decadal archive of Landsat satellite imagery is punctuated by missing data due to cloud cover during acquisition times, hindering the assembly of a continuous time series of inundation dynamics. This study...
Assessing the feasibility of satellite-based thresholds for hydrologically driven landsliding
Matthew A. Thomas, Brian D. Collins, Benjamin B. Mirus
2019, Water Resources Research (55) 9006-9023
Elevated soil moisture and heavy precipitation contribute to landslides worldwide. These environmental variables are now being resolved with satellites at spatiotemporal scales that could offer new perspectives on the development of landslide warning systems. However, the application of these data to hydro-meteorological thresholds (which account for antecedent soil moisture and...
Real-time assessments of water quality—A nowcast for Escherichia coli and cyanobacterial toxins
Donna S. Francy, Amie M.G. Brady, Tammy M. Zimmerman
2019, Fact Sheet 2019-3061
Threats to our recreational and drinking waters include disease-causing (pathogenic) organisms from fecal contamination and toxins produced by some species of cyanobacteria (cyanotoxins) that can cause acute and (or) chronic illnesses. Because traditional laboratory methods for detecting these threats take too long for prompt public health protection, tools for real-time...
Improving Darwin Core for research and management of alien species
Quentin J. Groom, Peter Desmet, Lien Reyserhove, Tim Adriaens, Damiano Oldoni, Sonia Vanderhoeven, Steven J Baskauf, Arthur Chapman, Melodie McGeoch, Ramona Walls, John Wieczorek, John RU Wilson, Paula FF Zermoglio, Annie Simpson
2019, Biodiversity Information Science and Standards 1-24
To improve the suitability of the Darwin Core standard for the research and management of alien species, the standard needs to express the native status of organisms, how well established they are and how they came to occupy a location. To facilitate this, we propose: 1. To adopt a controlled...
Prioritizing chemicals of ecological concern in Great Lakes tributaries using high-throughput screening data and adverse outcome pathways
Steven R. Corsi, Laura A. DeCicco, Daniel L. Villeneuve, Brett Blackwell, Kellie Fay, Gerald Ankley, Austin K. Baldwin
2019, Science of the Total Environment (686) 995-1009
Chemical monitoring data were collected in surface waters from 57 Great Lakes tributaries from 2010-13 to identify chemicals of potential biological relevance and sites at which these chemicals occur. Traditional water-quality benchmarks for aquatic life based on in vivo toxicity data were available for 34 of 67 evaluated chemicals. To...
Pathogen prevalence in American black bears (Ursus americanus) of the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, USA
Susan M. Bard, James W. Cain III
2019, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (55) 745-754
Informed management of American black bears (Ursus americanus) requires knowledge of the distribution and pathology of diseases affecting the species. Little information is available on pathogen prevalence from black bear populations in the Southwest, US, and it is unknown how these infections may influence black...
Groundwater/surface-water interactions along Ellerbe Creek in Durham, North Carolina, 2016–18
Dominick J. Antolino
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5097
An assessment of groundwater/surface-water interactions along Ellerbe Creek, a major tributary to upper Falls Lake in Durham County, North Carolina, was conducted from July 2016 to March 2018 to determine if groundwater is a likely source of elevated nitrate input to the stream. Groundwater/surface-water interactions were characterized by synoptic streamflow...
Earthquake arrival association with backprojection and graph theory
Ian McBrearty, Joan S. Gomberg, Andrew Delorey, Paul Johnson
2019, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (109) 2510-2531
The association of seismic‐wave arrivals with causative earthquakes becomes progressively more challenging as arrival detection methods become more sensitive, and particularly when earthquake rates are high. For instance, seismic waves arriving across a monitoring network from several sources may overlap in time, false arrivals may be detected, and some arrivals...
Spatial and temporal variation in river corridor exchange across a 5th order mountain stream network
Adam S Ward, Steven Wondzell, Noah M. Schmadel, Skuyler Herzog, Jay P. Zarnetske, Viktor Baranov, Phillip J Blaen, Nicolai Brekenfeld, Rosalie Chu, Romain Derelle, Jennifer D. Drummond, Jan Fleckenstein, Vanessa Garayburu-Caruso, Emily B. Graham, David Hannah, Ciaran Harman, Jase Hixson, Julia L.A. Knapp, Stefan Krause, Marie Kurz, Jorg Lewandowski, Angang Li, Eugènia Martí, Melinda Miller, Alexander Milner, Kerry Neil, Luisa Orsini, Aaron I. Packman, Stephen Plont, Lupita Renteria, Kevin Roche, Todd V Royer, Catalina Segura, James Stegen, Jason Toyoda, Jacqueline Wells, Nathan Wisnoski
2019, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (23) 5199-5225
Although most field and modeling studies of river corridor exchange have been conducted a scales ranging from 10’s to 100’s of meters; results of these studies are used to predict their ecological and hydrological influences at the scale of river networks. Further complicating prediction, exchanges are expected to vary with...
Hydrologic conditions in Kansas, water year 2018
Angela H. Unrein
2019, Fact Sheet 2019-3042
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Federal, State, and local agencies, maintains a long-term network of hydrologic monitoring stations in Kansas. In water year 2018, this network included 219 real-time streamgages. A water year is the 12-month period from October 1 through September 30 and is designated by the calendar year in which...
Geology of the Monte Blanco borate deposits, Furnace Creek Wash, Death Valley, California
S.J. Muessig, W.M. Pennell, Jeffrey R. Knott, James P. Calzia
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1111
The Monte Blanco borate deposits are located along the southern margin of Death Valley’s Furnace Creek Wash, south of Twenty Mule Team Canyon road in California. Topographic and geologic mapping by S. Muessig and F.M. Byers, Jr., in 1954 documented these deposits’ geologic settings, geometries, mineralogies, and chemical characteristics. They...
Regression models for estimating sediment and nutrient concentrations and loads at the Iroquois River near Foresman, Indiana, March 2015 through July 2018
Timothy R. Lathrop, Aubrey R. Bunch, Myles S. Downhour, Daniel M. Perkins
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5087
In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Iroquois River Conservancy District, deployed continuous water-quality monitors and began collecting representative discrete water-quality samples at the Iroquois River near Foresman, Indiana, streamflow-gaging station (U.S. Geological Survey station 05524500). By relating continuously monitored water-quality data and discrete water-quality samples collected...
Predicting fish species richness and habitat relationships using Bayesian hierarchical multispecies occupancy models
Shannon White, Evan Faulk, Caleb Tzilkowski, Andrew Weber, Matt Marshall, Tyler Wagner
2019, Canadian Journal Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (77)
Understanding how stream fishes respond to changes in habitat availability is complicated by low occurrence rates of many species, which in turn reduces the ability to quantify species–habitat relationships and account for imperfect detection in estimates of species richness. Multispecies occupancy models have been used sparingly in the analysis of...
Standardizing a non-lethal method for characterizing the reproductive status and larval development of freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionoida)
Caitlin Beaver, Susan Geda, Nathan Johnson
2019, Journal of Visualized Experiments (152)
Actively monitoring the timing, development, and reproductive patterns of endangered species is critical when managing for population recovery. Freshwater mussels are among the most imperiled organisms in the world, but information about early larval (glochidial) development and brooding periods is still lacking for many species. Previous studies have focused on...
Estimating sightability of greater sage-grouse at leks using an aerial infrared system and N-mixture models
Peter S. Coates, Gregory T. Wann, Gifford L. Gillette, Mark A. Ricca, Brian G. Prochazka, John P. Severson, Katie M. Andrle, Shawn P. Espinosa, Michael L. Casazza, David J. Delehanty
2019, Wildlife Biology (2019)
Counts of grouse present at leks (breeding grounds) during spring are widely used to monitor population numbers and assess trends. However, only a proportion of birds available to count are detected resulting in a biased population index. We designed a study using an aerial integrated infrared imaging system (AIRIS) and...
Reducing wet ammonium deposition in Rocky Mountain National Park: The development and evaluation of a pilot early warning system for agricultural operations in eastern Colorado
Aaron Pena, Russ Schumacher, Scott Denning, William Faulkner, Jill Baron, Jay Ham, Dennis S. Ojima, Jeffrey Collett
2019, Environmental Management (64) 626-639
Agricultural emissions are the primary source of ammonia (NH3) deposition in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), a Class I area, that is granted special air quality protections under the Clean Air Act. Between 2014 and 2016, the pilot phase of the Colorado agricultural nitrogen early warning system (CANEWS) was developed...
Understanding reproductive allometry in turtles: A slippery “slope”
John B. Iverson, Peter V. Lindeman, Jeffrey E. Lovich
2019, Ecology and Evolution (9) 11891-11903
Measures of reproductive output in turtles are generally positively correlated with female body size. However, a full understanding of reproductive allometry in turtles requires logarithmic transformation of reproductive and body size variables prior to regression analyses. This allows for slope comparisons with expected linear or cubic...
Streamflow—Water year 2018
Xiaodong Jian, David M. Wolock, Steven J. Brady, Harry F. Lins
2019, Fact Sheet 2019-3063
The maps and graphs in this summary describe national streamflow conditions for water year 2018 (October 1, 2017, to September 30, 2018) in the context of streamflow ranks relative to the 89-year period of water years 1930–2018. The illustrations are based on observed data from the U.S. Geological Survey National...
Potential interaction of groundwater and surface water including autonomous underwater vehicle reconnaissance at Nolin River Lake, Kentucky, 2016
Angela S. Crain, Justin A. Boldt, Randall E. Bayless, Aubrey R. Bunch, Jade L. Young, Jennifer C. Thomason, Zachary L. Wolf
2019, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5075
The U.S. Geological Survey collaborated with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District, on a synoptic study of water quality at Nolin River Lake during August 2016. The purpose of the study was to develop a better understanding of the potential for interaction between groundwater and surface water at...
Effects of ocean climate on the length and condition of forage fish in the Gulf of Alaska
Sarah Ann Thompson, Marisol Garcia-Reyes, William Sydeman, Mayumi L. Arimitsu, Scott Hatch, John F. Piatt
2019, Fisheries Oceanography (28) 658-671
Climatic drivers of the size and body condition of forage fish in the North Pacific are poorly known. We hypothesized that length and condition of forage fish in the Gulf of Alaska (GoA) should vary in relation to ocean temperature on multiple scales. To test this...
Anthropogenic and geologic causes of anomalously high uranium concentrations in groundwater used for drinking water supply in the southeastern San Joaquin Valley, CA
Michael R. Rosen, Karen R. Burow, Miranda Fram
2019, Journal of Hydrology (577) 1-14
Concentrations of uranium (U) >30 µg/L in groundwater are relatively uncommon in drinking water in the United States but can be of concern in those areas where complex interactions of aquifer materials and anthropogenic alterations of the natural flow regime mobilize uranium. High concentrations (>30 µg/L) of U in...
Burial history reconstruction of the Appalachian Basin in Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, using 1D petroleum system models
Debra K. Higley, Catherine B. Enomoto
2019, Mountain Geologist (56) 365-396
Nine 1D burial history models were built across the Appalachian Basin to reconstruct the burial, erosional, and thermal maturation histories of contained petroleum source rocks. Models were calibrated to measured downhole temperature and to vitrinite reflectance (% Ro) data from Devonian through Pennsylvanian petroleum source rocks. The highest levels...
Coastal Salinity Index along the southeastern Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico, 1983 to 2018
Matthew D. Petkewich, Kirsten Lackstrom, Bryan J. McCloskey, Lauren F. Rouen, Paul A. Conrads
2019, Open-File Report 2019-1090
Coastal droughts have a different dynamic than upland droughts, which are typically characterized by agricultural, hydrologic, meteorological, and (or) socioeconomic effects. Drought uniquely affects coastal ecosystems because of changes in the salinity conditions of estuarine creeks and rivers. The location of the freshwater-saltwater interface in surface-water bodies is an important...
Wetland biomass and productivity in Coastal Louisiana: Base line data (1976-2015) and knowledge gaps for the development of spatially explicit models for ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation initiatives
Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, Courtney Elliton, Siddhartha Narra, Ehab Meselhe, Xiaochen Zhao, Eric White, Charles E. Sasser, Jenneke M. Visser, X. Meng, Hongqing Wang, Zuo Xue, Fernando Jaramillo
2019, Water (11)
Coastal Louisiana host 37% of the coastal wetland area in the conterminous US, including one of the deltaic coastal regions more susceptible to the synergy of human and natural impacts causing wetland loss. As a result of the construction of flood protection infrastructure, dredging of channels across wetlands for oil/gas...
