Salmon redd identification using environmental DNA (eDNA)
David S. Pilliod, Matthew B. Laramie
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1091
IntroductionThe purpose of this project was to develop a technique to use environmental DNA (eDNA) to distinguish between redds made by Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and redds made by Coho salmon (O. kisutch) and to distinguish utilized redds from test/abandoned redds or scours that have the appearance of redds. The...
Bathymetric survey and digital elevation model of Little Holland Tract, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California
Alexander G. Snyder, Jessica R. Lacy, Andrew W. Stevens, Emily M. Carlson
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1093
The U.S. Geological Survey conducted a bathymetric survey in Little Holland Tract, a flooded agricultural tract, in the northern Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (the “Delta”) during the summer of 2015. The new bathymetric data were combined with existing data to generate a digital elevation model (DEM) at 1-meter resolution. Little Holland...
Estimation of daily mean streamflow for ungaged stream locations in the Delaware River Basin, water years 1960–2010
Marla H. Stuckey
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5157
The ability to characterize baseline streamflow conditions, compare them with current conditions, and assess effects of human activities on streamflow is fundamental to water-management programs addressing water allocation, human-health issues, recreation needs, and establishment of ecological flow criteria. The U.S. Geological Survey, through the National Water Census, has developed the...
User’s guide for the Delaware River Basin Streamflow Estimator Tool (DRB-SET)
Marla H. Stuckey, James E. Ulrich
2016, Open-File Report 2015-1192
IntroductionThe Delaware River Basin Streamflow Estimator Tool (DRB-SET) is a tool for the simulation of streamflow at a daily time step for an ungaged stream location in the Delaware River Basin. DRB-SET was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and funded through WaterSMART as part of the National Water...
Conservation of native Pacific trout diversity in western North America
Brooke E. Penaluna, Alicia Abadia-Cardoso, Jason B. Dunham, Francisco J Garcia de Leon, Robert E. Gresswell, Arturo Ruiz Luna, Eric B. Taylor, Bradley B. Shepard, Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Clint C. Muhlfeld, Kevin R. Bestgen, Kevin H. Rogers, Marco A Escalante, Ernest R. Keeley, Gabriel Temple, Jack E. Williams, Kathleen Matthews, Ron Pierce, Richard L. Mayden, Ryan Kovach, John Carlos Garza, Kurt D. Fausch
2016, Fisheries (41) 286-300
Pacific trout Oncorhynchus spp. in western North America are strongly valued in ecological, socioeconomic, and cultural views, and have been the subject of substantial research and conservation efforts. Despite this, the understanding of their evolutionary histories, overall diversity, and challenges to their conservation is incomplete. We review the state of...
Analysis of environmental factors influencing salinity patterns, oyster growth, and mortality in lower Breton Sound Estuary, Louisiana using 20 years of data
Megan K. LaPeyre, James Geaghan, Gary A. Decossas, Jerome F. La Peyre
2016, Journal of Coastal Research (32) 519-530
Freshwater inflow characteristics define estuarine functioning by delivering nutrients, sediments, and freshwater, which affect biological resources and ultimately system production. Using 20 years of water quality, weather, and oyster growth and mortality data from Breton Sound Estuary (BSE), Louisiana, we examined the relationship of riverine, weather, and tidal influence on...
Post-release survival and movement of Western Grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) implanted with intracoelomic satellite transmitters
Kyra L. Mills, Joseph K. Gaydos, Christine V. Fiorello, Emily Whitmer, Susan De La Cruz, Daniel M. Mulcahy, L. Ignacio Vilchis, Michael H. Ziccardi
2016, Waterbirds (39) 175-186
The main goal of this study was to gain knowledge on post-release survival and movement of Western Grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) using a modified technique for implanting satellite transmitters. This technique had improved post-surgical survival in an earlier study. Nine Western Grebes, implanted with intracoelomic (within the body cavity) satellite transmitters...
Vulnerabilities of national parks in the American Midwest to climate and land use changes
Esther D. Stroh, Matthew A. Struckhoff, David Shaver, Krista A. Karstensen
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5057
Many national parks in the American Midwest are surrounded by agricultural or urban areas or are in highly fragmented or rapidly changing landscapes. An environmental stressor is a physical, chemical, or biological condition that affects the functioning or productivity of species or ecosystems. Climate change is just one of many...
Effects of hydrology, watershed size, and agricultural practices on sediment yields in two river basins in Iowa and Mississippi
Gustavo Henrique Merten, Heather L. Welch, M.D. Tomer
2016, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation (71) 267-278
The specific sediment yield (SSY) from watersheds is the result of the balance between natural, scale-dependent erosion and deposition processes, but can be greatly altered by human activities. In general, the SSY decreases along the course of a river as sediments are trapped in alluvial plains and other sinks. However,...
Discharge and nutrient transport between lakes in a hydrologically complex area of Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, 2010-2012
Victoria G. Christensen, Eric Wakeman, Ryan P. Maki
2016, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (52) 578-591
An acoustic Doppler velocity meter (ADVM) was deployed in the narrows between Namakan and Kabetogama Lakes in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, from November 3, 2010, through October 3, 2012. The ADVM can account for wind, seiche, and changing flow direction in hydrologically complex areas. The objectives were to (1) estimate...
Thyroid endocrine disruption and external body morphology of Zebrafish
Prakash Sharma, Timothy B. Grabowski, Reynaldo Patino
2016, General and Comparative Endocrinology (226) 42-49
This study examined the effects thyroid-active compounds during early development on body morphology of Zebrafish (Danio rerio). Three-day postfertilization (dpf) larvae were exposed to goitrogen [methimazole (MZ, 0.15 mM)], combination of MZ (0.15 mM) and thyroxine (T4, 2 nM), T4 (2 nM), or control (reconstituted water) treatments until 33 dpf...
Monitoring the status of Gray Bats (Myotis grisescens in Virginia, 2009-2014, and potential impacts of White-nose Syndrome
Karen E. Powers, Richard J. Reynolds, Wil Orndorff, Brenna A. Hyzy, Christopher S. Hobson, W. Mark Ford
2016, Southeastern Naturalist (15) 127-137
Myotis grisescens (Gray Bat) is a federally endangered species distributed over the mid-South with a summer range that extends across the upper Tennessee River Basin, including southwest Virginia. Given the onset of White-nose Syndrome (WNS) in the Commonwealth in the winter of 2009, we initiated yearly surveys in late summer 2009...
Estimating population density and connectivity of American mink using spatial capture-recapture
Angela K. Fuller, Christopher S. Sutherland, J. Andrew Royle, Matthew P. Hare
2016, Ecological Applications (26) 1125-1135
Estimating the abundance or density of populations is fundamental to the conservation and management of species, and as landscapes become more fragmented, maintaining landscape connectivity has become one of the most important challenges for biodiversity conservation. Yet these two issues have never been formally integrated together in a model that...
Seeing the forest through the trees: Considering roost-site selection at multiple spatial scales
David S. Jachowski, Christopher T. Rota, Christopher A. Dobony, W. Mark Ford, John W. Edwards
2016, PLoS ONE (11)
Conservation of bat species is one of the most daunting wildlife conservation challenges in North America, requiring detailed knowledge about their ecology to guide conservation efforts. Outside of the hibernating season, bats in temperate forest environments spend their diurnal time in day-roosts. In addition to simple shelter, summer roost availability...
Efficiency of two-way weirs and prepositioned electrofishing for sampling potamodromous fish migrations
Scott D. Favrot, Thomas J. Kwak
2016, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (36) 167-182
Potamodromy (i.e., migration entirely in freshwater) is a common life history strategy of North American lotic fishes, and efficient sampling methods for potamodromous fishes are needed to formulate conservation and management decisions. Many potamodromous fishes inhabit medium-sized rivers and are mobile during spawning migrations, which complicates sampling with conventional gears...
Flood-Inundation Maps for Sugar Creek at Crawfordsville, Indiana
Zachary W. Martin
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5043
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 6.5-mile reach of Sugar Creek at Crawfordsville, Indiana, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs. The flood-inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Science Web site at <a...
Evidence of multiple thermokarst lake generations from an 11800-year-old permafrost core on the northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska
Josefine Lenz, Sebastian Wetterich, Benjamin M. Jones, Hanno Meyer, Anatoly Bobrov, Guido Grosse
2016, Boreas (45) 584-603
Permafrost degradation influences the morphology, biogeochemical cycling and hydrology of Arctic landscapes over a range of time scales. To reconstruct temporal patterns of early to late Holocene permafrost and thermokarst dynamics, site-specific palaeo-records are needed. Here we present a multi-proxy study of a 350-cm-long permafrost...
Insights into methane dynamics from analysis of authigenic carbonates and chemosynthetic mussels at newly-discovered Atlantic Margin seeps
Nancy G. Prouty, Diana Sahy, Carolyn D. Ruppel, E. Brendan Roark, Dan Condon, Sandra Brooke, Steve W. Ross, Amanda W.J. Demopoulos
2016, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (449) 332-344
The recent discovery of active methane venting along the US northern and mid-Atlantic margin represents a new source of global methane not previously accounted for in carbon budgets from this region. However, uncertainty remains as to the origin and history of methane seepage along this tectonically inactive passive margin. Here...
Combined use of isotopic and hydrometric data to conceptualize ecohydrological processes in a high-elevation tropical ecosystem
Giovanny M Mosquera, Rolando Celleri, Patricio X Lazo, Kellie B Vache, Steven S. Perakis, Patricio Crespo
2016, Hydrological Processes (30) 2930-2947
Few high-elevation tropical catchments worldwide are gauged and even fewer are studied using combined hydrometric and isotopic data. Consequently, we lack information needed to understand processes governing rainfall-runoff dynamics and to predict their influence on downstream ecosystem functioning. To address this need, we present a combination of hydrometric and water...
Field survey of earthquake effects from the magnitude 4.0 southern Maine earthquake of October 16, 2012
Amy L. Radakovich, Alex J. Fergusen, John Boatwright
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1071
The magnitude 4.0 earthquake that occurred on October 16, 2012, near Hollis Center and Waterboro in southwestern Maine surprised and startled local residents but caused only minor damage. A two-person U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) team was sent to Maine to conduct an intensity survey and document the damage. The only...
Groundwater quality from private domestic water-supply wells in the vicinity of petroleum production in southwestern Indiana
Martin R. Risch, Cheryl A. Silcox
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1081
The U.S. Geological Survey provided technical support to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry for site selection and sample collection and analysis in a 2012 investigation of groundwater quality from 29 private domestic water-supply wells in the vicinity of petroleum production in southwestern Indiana. Petroleum hydrocarbons, oil and...
Hydrogeology and water quality of the Floridan aquifer system and effect of Lower Floridan aquifer withdrawals on the Upper Floridan aquifer at Barbour Pointe Community, Chatham County, Georgia, 2013
Gerard Gonthier, John S. Clarke
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5028
Two test wells were completed at the Barbour Pointe community in western Chatham County, near Savannah, Georgia, in 2013 to investigate the potential of using the Lower Floridan aquifer as a source of municipal water supply. One well was completed in the Lower Floridan aquifer at a depth of 1,080...
A software tool for rapid flood inundation mapping
James Verdin, Kristine Verdin, Melissa L. Mathis, Tamuka Magadzire, Eric Kabuchanga, Mark Woodbury, Hussein Gadain
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1038
The GIS Flood Tool (GFT) was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance to provide a means for production of reconnaissance-level flood inundation mapping for data-sparse and resource-limited areas of the world. The GFT has also...
Status of the California Red-legged Frog (Rana draytonii) in the State of Baja California, México
Anny Peralta-Garcia, Bradford D. Hellingsworth, Jonathan Q. Richmond, Jorge H. Valdez-Villavicencio, Gorgonio Ruiz-Campos, Robert N. Fisher, Pedro Cruz-Hernandez, Patricia Galina-Tessaro
2016, Herpetological Conservation and Biology (11) 168-180
The California Red-legged Frog (Rana draytonii) is a threatened species in the United States that has undergone population declines, especially in southern California. Due to the lack of information on the status of Mexican populations, we surveyed for the presence of R. draytonii in Baja California and assessed possible threats...
Effects of turbidity on predation vulnerability of juvenile humpback chub to rainbow and brown trout
David L. Ward, Rylan Morton-Starner, Benjamin M. Vaage
2016, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (7) 1-8
Predation on juvenile native fish by introduced rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and brown trout Salmo trutta is considered a significant threat to the persistence of endangered humpback chub Gila cypha in the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. Diet studies of rainbow and brown trout in Glen and Grand canyons indicate...
