Concentrations of nitrate in drinking water in the lower Yakima River Basin, Groundwater Management Area, Yakima County, Washington, 2017
Raegan L. Huffman
2018, Data Series 1084
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the lower Yakima River Basin Groundwater Management Area (GWMA) group, conducted an intensive groundwater sampling collection effort of collecting nitrate concentration data in drinking water to provide a baseline for future nitrate assessments within the GWMA. About every 6 weeks from April through...
Klamath River Basin water-quality data
Cassandra D. Smith, Stewart A. Rounds, Leonard L. Orzol
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3031
The Klamath River Basin stretches from the mountains and inland basins of south-central Oregon and northern California to the Pacific Ocean, spanning multiple climatic regions and encompassing a variety of ecosystems. Water quantity and water quality are important topics in the basin, because water is a critical resource for farming...
North American net import reliance of mineral materials in 2014 for advanced technologies
Jamie L. Brainard, Robert G Sinclair, Kevin Stone, Elizabeth Scott Sangine, Steven M. Fortier
2018, Mining Engineering (70) 107-112
The U.S. Geological Survey and Natural Resources Canada conducted a study on the net import reliance of each North American country, and the impact of North American trade on the net import reliance of 12 nonfuel mineral commodities that are associated with advanced technology products: cadmium, cobalt, gallium, germanium, graphite,...
Range expansion in unfavorable environments through behavioral responses to microclimatic conditions: Moose (Alces americanus) as the model
Katherine A. Zeller, David W. Wattles, Stephen DeStefano
2018, Mammalian Biology (93) 189-197
Wildlife populations occurring at the edge of their range boundaries are thought to be the most sensitive to climate change due to temperatures being at or near the limit of a species’ thermal envelope. Moose (Alces americanus) are a cold adapted species that are showing population declines in some portions of the southern edge of...
Comparability among four invertebrate sampling methods and two multimetric indexes, Fountain Creek Basin, Colorado, 2010–2012
James F. Bruce, James Roberts, Robert E. Zuellig
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5061
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with Colorado Springs City Engineering and Colorado Springs Utilities, analyzed previously collected invertebrate data to determine the comparability among four sampling methods and two versions (2010 and 2017) of the Colorado Benthic Macroinvertebrate Multimetric Index (MMI). For this study, annual macroinvertebrate samples were...
Chesapeake Bay's water quality condition has been recovering: Insights from a multimetric indicator assessment of thirty years of tidal monitoring data
Qian Zhang, Rebecca R. Murphy, Richard Tian, Melinda K. Forsyth, Emily M. Trentacoste, Jennifer L. D. Keisman, Peter J. Tango
2018, Science of the Total Environment (637-638) 1617-1625
To protect the aquatic living resources of Chesapeake Bay, the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership has developed guidance for state water quality standards, which include ambient water quality criteria to protect designated uses (DUs), and associated assessment procedures for dissolved oxygen (DO), water clarity/underwater bay grasses, and chlorophyll-a. For measuring progress toward...
Canopy volume removal from oil and gas development activity in the upper Susquehanna River basin in Pennsylvania and New York (USA): An assessment using lidar data
John A. Young, Kelly O. Maloney, E. Terrence Slonecker, Lesley E. Milheim, David Siripoonsup
2018, Journal of Environmental Management (222) 66-75
Oil and gas development is changing the landscape in many regions of the United States and globally. However, the nature, extent, and magnitude of landscape change and development, and precisely how this development compares to other ongoing land conversion (e.g. urban/sub-urban development, timber harvest) is not well understood. In this...
Assessing the impacts of dams and levees on the hydrologic record of the Middle and Lower Mississippi River, USA
Jonathan W.F. Remo, Brian Ickes, Julia K. Ryherd, Ross J. Guida, Matthew D. Therrell
2018, Geomorphology (313) 88-100
The impacts of dams and levees on the long-term (>130 years) discharge record was assessed along a ~1200 km segment of the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri, and Vicksburg, Mississippi. To aid in our evaluation of dam impacts, we used data from the U.S. National Inventory of Dams to calculate the...
A retrospective look at the February 1993 east rift zone intrusion at Kīlauea volcano, Hawaii
Sarah Conway, Christelle Wauthier, Yo Fukushima, Michael P. Poland
2018, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (358) 241-251
The February 1993 dike intrusion in the East Rift Zone (ERZ) of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i, was recognized from tilt and seismic data, but ground-based geodetic data were too sparse to constrain the characteristics of the intrusion. Analysis of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) from the Japan Aerospace...
Patterns of species richness hotspots and estimates of their protection are sensitive to spatial resolution
Alexa McKerrow, Nathan M. Tarr, Matthew J. Rubino, Steven G. Williams
2018, Diversity and Distributions (24) 1464-1477
AimSpecies richness is a measure of biodiversity often used in spatial conservation assessments and mapped by summing species distribution maps. Commission errors inherent those maps influence richness patterns and conservation assessments. We sought to further the understanding of the sensitivity of hotspot delineation methods and conservation...
Origin of last-glacial loess in the western Yukon-Tanana Upland, central Alaska, USA
Daniel R. Muhs, Jeffrey S. Pigati, James R. Budahn, Gary L. Skipp, E. Arthur Bettis III, Britta Jensen
2018, Quaternary Research (89) 797-819
Loess is widespread over Alaska, and its accumulation has traditionally been associated with glacial periods. Surprisingly, loess deposits securely dated to the last glacial period are rare in Alaska, and paleowind reconstructions for this time period are limited to inferences from dune orientations. We report a rare occurrence of loess...
Enhancement of a parsimonious water balance model to simulate surface hydrology in a glacierized watershed
Melissa M. Valentin, Roland J. Viger, Ashley E. Van Beusekom, Lauren E. Hay, Terri S. Hogue, Nathan Leon Foks
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research F: Earth Surface (123) 1116-1132
The U.S. Geological Survey monthly water balance model (MWBM) was enhanced with the capability to simulate glaciers in order to make it more suitable for simulating cold region hydrology. The new model, MWBMglacier, is demonstrated in the heavily glacierized and ecologically important Copper River watershed in Southcentral Alaska. Simulated water...
Sampling the stream landscape: Improving the applicability of an ecoregion-level capture probability model for stream fishes
Robert Mollenhauer, Joshua B. Mouser, Shannon K. Brewer
2018, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (75) 1614-1625
Temporal and spatial variability in streams result in heterogeneous gear capture probability (i.e., the proportion of available individuals identified) that confounds interpretation of data used to monitor fish abundance. We modeled tow-barge electrofishing capture probability at multiple spatial scales for nine Ozark Highland stream fishes. In addition to fish size,...
A framework for modeling scenario-based barrier island storm impacts
Rangley C. Mickey, Joseph W. Long, P. Soupy Dalyander, Nathaniel G. Plant, David M. Thompson
2018, Coastal Engineering (138) 98-112
Methods for investigating the vulnerability of existing or proposed coastal features to storm impacts often rely on simplified parametric models or one-dimensional process-based modeling studies that focus on changes to a profile across a dune or barrier island. These simple studies tend to neglect the impacts to curvilinear or alongshore...
Streamflow, water quality, and constituent loads and yields, Scituate Reservoir Drainage Area, Rhode Island, water year 2015
Kirk Smith
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1065
Streamflow and concentrations of sodium and chloride estimated from records of specific conductance were used to calculate loads of sodium and chloride during water year (WY) 2015 (October 1, 2014, through September 30, 2015) for tributaries to the Scituate Reservoir, Rhode Island. Streamflow and water-quality data used in the study...
Comparison of NEXRAD multisensor precipitation estimates to rain gage observations in and near DuPage County, Illinois, 2002–12
Ryan R. Spies, Thomas M. Over, Terry Ortel
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1061
In this report, precipitation data from 2002 to 2012 from the hourly gridded Next-Generation Radar (NEXRAD)-based Multisensor Precipitation Estimate (MPE) precipitation product are compared to precipitation data from two rain gage networks—an automated tipping bucket network of 25 rain gages operated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and 51 rain...
Effect of river confinement on depth and spatial extent of bed disturbance affecting salmon redds
Christiana R. Czuba, Jonathan A. Czuba, Christopher S. Magirl, Andrew S. Gendaszek, Christopher P. Konrad
2018, Journal of Ecohydraulics (2) 1-14
Human impacts on rivers threaten the natural function of riverine ecosystems. This paper assesses how channel confinement affects the scour depth and spatial extent of bed disturbance and discusses the implications of these results for salmon-redd disturbance in gravel-bedded rivers. Two-dimensional hydrodynamic models of relatively confined and unconfined reaches of...
Analysis of groundwater response to tidal fluctuations, Operable Unit 2, Area 8, Naval Base Kitsap, Keyport, Washington
Chad C. Opatz, Richard S. Dinicola
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1082
Operable Unit 2, Area 8, at Naval Base Kitsap, Keyport is the site of a former chrome-plating facility that released metals (primarily chromium and cadmium), chlorinated volatile organic compounds, and petroleum compounds into the local environment. To ensure long-term protectiveness, as stipulated in the Fourth Five-Year Review for the...
Effects of experimental removal of Barred Owls on population demography of Northern Spotted Owls in Washington and Oregon—2017 progress report
J. David Wiens, Katie M. Dugger, Damon B. Lesmeister, Krista E. Dilione, David C. Simon
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1086
Populations of Northern Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis caurina; hereinafter referred to as Spotted Owl) are declining throughout this subspecies’ geographic range. Evidence indicates that competition with invading populations of Barred Owls (S. varia) has contributed significantly to those declines. A pilot study in California showed that localized removal of Barred...
MonitoringResources.org—Supporting coordinated and cost-effective natural resource monitoring across organizations
Jennifer M. Bayer, Rebecca A. Scully, Jake Weltzin
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3015
Natural resource managers who oversee the Nation’s resources require data to support informed decision-making at a variety of spatial and temporal scales that often cross typical jurisdictional boundaries such as states, agency regions, and watersheds. These data come from multiple agencies, programs, and sources, often with their own methods and...
Spatiotemporal analysis of Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 data to support monitoring of dryland ecosystems
Neal J. Pastick, Bruce K. Wylie, Zhuoting Wu
2018, Remote Sensing (10)
Drylands are the habitat and source of livelihood for about two fifths of the world’s population and are highly susceptible to climate and anthropogenic change. To understand the vulnerability of drylands to changing environmental conditions, land managers need to effectively monitor rates of past change and remote sensing offers a...
Do downscaled general circulation models reliably simulate historical climatic conditions?
Andrew R. Bock, Lauren E. Hay, Gregory J. McCabe, Steven L. Markstrom, R. Dwight Atkinson
2018, Earth Interactions (22) 1-22
The accuracy of statistically downscaled (SD) general circulation model (GCM) simulations of monthly surface climate for historical conditions (1950–2005) was assessed for the conterminous United States (CONUS). The SD monthly precipitation (PPT) and temperature (TAVE) from 95 GCMs from phases 3 and 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3...
Design considerations for estimating survival rates with standing age structures
Rebecca L. Taylor, Mark S. Udevitz
2018, Wildlife Society Bulletin (42) 32-39
Survival rate estimates are critical to understanding the dynamics and status of a population, and they are often inferred from samples of the population’s age structure. A recently developed method uses time series of standing age-structure data with information about population growth rate or fecundity to provide explicit maximum likelihood estimators of age-specific...
A method to quantify and value floodplain sediment and nutrient retention ecosystem services
Kristina G. Hopkins, Gregory E. Noe, Fabiano Franco, Emily Pindilli, Stephanie E. Gordon, Marina J. Metes, Peter R. Claggett, Allen C. Gellis, Cliff R. Hupp, Dianna M. Hogan
2018, Journal of Environmental Management (220) 65-76
Floodplains provide critical ecosystem services to local and downstream communities by retaining floodwaters, sediments, and nutrients. The dynamic nature of floodplains is such that these areas can both accumulate sediment and nutrients through deposition, and export material downstream through erosion. Therefore, estimating floodplain sediment and nutrient retention should consider the...
Estimating distribution and connectivity of recolonizing American marten in the northeastern United States using expert elicitation techniques
C.M. Aylward, J.D. Murdoch, Therese M. Donovan, C.W. Kilpatrick, C. Bernier, J. Katz
2018, Animal Conservation (21) 483-495
The American marten Martes americana is a species of conservation concern in the northeastern United States due to widespread declines from over‐harvesting and habitat loss. Little information exists on current marten distribution and how landscape characteristics shape patterns of occupancy across the region, which could help develop effective recovery strategies. The rarity...
