Nonnative trout invasions combined with climate change threaten persistence of isolated cutthroat trout populations in the southern Rocky Mountains
James Roberts, Kurt D. Fausch, Mevin Hooten, Douglas P. Peterson
2017, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (37) 314-325
Effective conservation of Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii lineages native to the Rocky Mountains will require estimating effects of multiple stressors and directing management toward the most important ones. Recent analyses have focused on the direct and indirect effects of a changing climate on contemporary ranges, which are much reduced from historic...
Geochemistry and hydrology of perched groundwater springs: assessing elevated uranium concentrations at Pigeon Spring relative to nearby Pigeon Mine, Arizona (USA)
Kimberly R. Beisner, Nicholas V. Paretti, Fred D. Tillman, David L. Naftz, Donald J. Bills, Katherine Walton-Day, Tanya J. Gallegos
2017, Hydrogeology Journal (25) 539-556
The processes that affect water chemistry as the water flows from recharge areas through breccia-pipe uranium deposits in the Grand Canyon region of the southwestern United States are not well understood. Pigeon Spring had elevated uranium in 1982 (44 μg/L), compared to other perched springs (2.7–18 μg/L), prior to mining...
Eruptive history, geochronology, and post-eruption structural evolution of the late Eocene Hall Creek Caldera, Toiyabe Range, Nevada
Joseph P. Colgan, Christopher D. Henry
2017, Professional Paper 1832
The magmatic, tectonic, and topographic evolution of what is now the northern Great Basin remains controversial, notably the temporal and spatial relation between magmatism and extensional faulting. This controversy is exemplified in the northern Toiyabe Range of central Nevada, where previous geologic mapping suggested the presence of a caldera that...
Ecology and space: A case study in mapping harmful invasive species
David T. Barnett, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Geneva W. Chong, Thomas J. Stohlgren, Sunil Kumar, Tracy R. Holcombe
Stanley D. Brunn, Martin Dodge, editor(s)
2017, Book chapter, Mapping across academia
The establishment and invasion of non-native plant species have the ability to alter the composition of native species and functioning of ecological systems with financial costs resulting from mitigation and loss of ecological services. Spatially documenting invasions has applications for management and theory, but the utility of maps is challenged...
Adapting California’s ecosystems to a changing climate
Elizabeth Chornesky, David Ackerly, Paul Beier, Frank W. Davis, Lorraine E. Flint, Joshua J. Lawler, Peter B. Moyle, Max A. Moritz, Mary Scoonover, Kristin B. Byrd, Pelayo Alvarez, Nicole E. Heller, Elisabeth Micheli, Stuart Weiss
2017, BioScience (65) 247-262
Significant efforts are underway to translate improved understanding of how climate change is altering ecosystems into practical actions for sustaining ecosystem functions and benefits. We explore this transition in California, where adaptation and mitigation are advancing relatively rapidly, through four case studies that span large spatial domains and encompass diverse...
Coastal single-beam bathymetry data collected in 2015 from the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana
Chelsea A. Stalk, Nancy T. DeWitt, Julie Bernier, Jack G. Kindinger, James G. Flocks, Jennifer L. Miselis, Stanley D. Locker, Kyle W. Kelso, Thomas M. Tuten
2017, Data Series 1039
As part of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) Barrier Island Comprehensive Monitoring Program, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center conducted a single-beam bathymetry survey around the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, in June 2015. The goal of the program is to...
Hydrology and water quality in 13 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia, 2001–15
Brent T. Aulenbach, John K. Joiner, Jaime A. Painter
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5012
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources, established a Long-Term Trend Monitoring (LTTM) program in 1996. The LTTM program is a comprehensive, long-term, water-quantity and water-quality monitoring program designed to document and analyze the hydrologic and water-quality conditions of selected watersheds in Gwinnett...
Influence of road network and population demand assumptions in evacuation modeling for distant tsunamis
Kevin Henry, Nathan J. Wood, Tim G. Frazier
2017, Natural Hazards (85) 1665-1687
Tsunami evacuation planning in coastal communities is typically focused on local events where at-risk individuals must move on foot in a matter of minutes to safety. Less attention has been placed on distant tsunamis, where evacuations unfold over several hours, are often dominated by vehicle use and are managed by...
Characterization of streamflow, suspended sediment, and nutrients entering Galveston Bay from the Trinity River, Texas, May 2014–December 2015
Zulimar Lucena, Michael T. Lee
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5177
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Texas Water Development Board and the Galveston Bay Estuary Program, collected streamflow and water-quality data at USGS streamflow-gaging stations in the lower Trinity River watershed from May 2014 to December 2015 to characterize and improve the current understanding of the quantity...
Amphibian dynamics in constructed ponds on a wildlife refuge: developing expected responses to hydrological restoration
Blake R. Hossack
2017, Hydrobiologia (790) 23-33
Management actions are based upon predictable responses. To form expected responses to restoration actions, I estimated habitat relationships and trends (2002–2015) for four pond-breeding amphibians on a wildlife refuge (Montana, USA) where changes to restore historical hydrology to the system greatly expanded (≥8 times) the flooded area of the primary...
Species interactions and the effects of climate variability on a wetland amphibian metacommunity
Courtney L. Davis, David A.W. Miller, Susan C. Walls, William J. Barichivich, Jeffrey W. Riley, Mary E. Brown
2017, Ecological Applications (27) 285-296
Disentangling the role that multiple interacting factors have on species responses to shifting climate poses a significant challenge. However, our ability to do so is of utmost importance to predict the effects of climate change on species distributions. We examined how populations of three species of wetland-breeding amphibians, which varied...
Landslide kinematics and their potential controls from hourly to decadal timescales: Insights from integrating ground-based InSAR measurements with structural maps and long-term monitoring data
William H. Schulz, Jeffrey A. Coe, P.P Ricci, Gregory M. Smoczyk, Brett L Shurtleff, J Panosky
2017, Geomorphology (285) 121-136
Knowledge of kinematics is rudimentary for understanding landslide controls and is increasingly valuable with greater spatiotemporal coverage. However, characterizing landslide-wide kinematics is rare, especially at broadly ranging timescales. We used highly detailed kinematic data obtained using photogrammetry and field mapping during the 1980s and 1990s and our 4.3-day ground-based InSAR...
Gravitational body forces focus North American intraplate earthquakes
William Brower Levandowski, Mark Zellman, Richard W. Briggs
2017, Nature Communications (8)
Earthquakes far from tectonic plate boundaries generally exploit ancient faults, but not all intraplate faults are equally active. The North American Great Plains exemplify such intraplate earthquake localization, with both natural and induced seismicity generally clustered in discrete zones. Here we use seismic velocity, gravity and topography to generate a...
Trophic interactions and consumption rates of subyearling Chinook Salmon and nonnative juvenile American Shad in Columbia River reservoirs
Craig A. Haskell, David A. Beauchamp, Stephen M Bollins
2017, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (146) 291-298
We used a large lampara seine coupled with nonlethal gastric lavage to examine the diets and estimate consumption rates of subyearling Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha during July and August 2013. During August we also examined the diet and consumption rates of juvenile American Shad Alosa sapidissima, a potential competitor of...
A methodology for modeling barrier island storm-impact scenarios
Rangley C. Mickey, Joseph W. Long, Nathaniel G. Plant, David M. Thompson, P. Soupy Dalyander
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1009
A methodology for developing a representative set of storm scenarios based on historical wave buoy and tide gauge data for a region at the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey. The total water level was calculated for a 10-year period and analyzed against existing topographic data...
Controls on pore types and pore-size distribution in the Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation, Ordos Basin, China: Implications for pore-evolution models of lacustrine mudrocks
Lucy T. Ko, R. R. Loucks, Kitty L. Milliken, Quansheng Liang, Tongwei Zhang, Xun Sun, Paul C. Hackley, Stephen C. Ruppel, Sheng Peng
2017, Interpretation (5) SF127-SF148
Our main objectives are to (1) learn if pore-evolution models developed from marine mudrocks can be directly applied to lacustrine mudrocks, (2) investigate what controls the different pore types and sizes of Chang 7 organic matter (OM)-rich argillaceous mudstones of the Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation, and (3) describe the texture, fabric, mineralogy, and...
Flood-inundation maps for the Big Blue River at Shelbyville, Indiana
Kathleen K. Fowler
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5166
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 4.1-mile reach of the Big Blue River at Shelbyville, Indiana, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs. The floodinundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Science Web site...
Hypsometric control on glacier mass balance sensitivity in Alaska and northwest Canada
Daniel Mcgrath, Louis C. Sass, Shad O’Neel, Anthony A. Arendt, C. Kienholz
2017, Earth's Future (5) 324-336
Glacier hypsometry provides a first‐order approach for assessing a glacier's response to climate forcings. We couple the Randolph Glacier Inventory to a suite of in situ observations and climate model output to examine potential change for the ∼27,000 glaciers in Alaska and northwest Canada through the end of the 21st...
Testing model parameters for wave‐induced dune erosion using observations from Hurricane Sandy
Jacquelyn R. Overbeck, Joseph W. Long, Hilary F. Stockdon
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 937-945
Models of dune erosion depend on a set of assumptions that dictate the predicted evolution of dunes throughout the duration of a storm. Lidar observations made before and after Hurricane Sandy at over 800 profiles with diverse dune elevations, widths, and volumes are used to quantify specific dune erosion model...
Evaluation of nutria (Myocastor coypus) detection methods in Maryland, USA
Margaret A. Pepper, Valentine Herrmann, James E. Hines, James D. Nichols, Stephen R Kendrot
2017, Biological Invasions (19) 831-841
Nutria (Myocaster coypus), invasive, semi-aquatic rodents native to South America, were introduced into Maryland near Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (BNWR) in 1943. Irruptive population growth, expansion, and destructive feeding habits resulted in the destruction of thousands of acres of emergent marshes at and surrounding BNWR. In 2002, a...
Potential influence of wildfire in modulating climate-induced forest redistribution in a central Rocky Mountain landscape
John L. Campbell, Douglas J. Shinneman
2017, Ecological Processes (6) 1-17
IntroductionClimate change is expected to impose significant tension on the geographic distribution of tree species. Yet, tree species range shifts may be delayed by their long life spans, capacity to withstand long periods of physiological stress, and dispersal limitations. Wildfire could theoretically break this biological...
Preferential flow, diffuse flow, and perching in an interbedded fractured-rock unsaturated zone
John R. Nimmo, Kaitlyn M Creasey, Kimberlie Perkins, Benjamin B. Mirus
2017, Hydrogeology Journal (25) 421-444
Layers of strong geologic contrast within the unsaturated zone can control recharge and contaminant transport to underlying aquifers. Slow diffuse flow in certain geologic layers, and rapid preferential flow in others, complicates the prediction of vertical and lateral fluxes. A simple model is presented, designed to use limited geological site...
Water quality data for national-scale aquatic research: The Water Quality Portal
Emily K. Read, Lindsay Carr, Laura A. DeCicco, Hilary Dugan, Paul C. Hanson, Julia A. Hart, James Kreft, Jordan S. Read, Luke Winslow
2017, Water Resources Research (53) 1735-1745
Aquatic systems are critical to food, security, and society. But, water data are collected by hundreds of research groups and organizations, many of which use nonstandard or inconsistent data descriptions and dissemination, and disparities across different types of water observation systems represent a major challenge for freshwater research. To address...
Lithospheric density structure beneath the Tarim basin and surroundings, northwestern China, from the joint inversion of gravity and topography
Yangfan Deng, William Brower Levandowski, Tim Kusky
2017, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (460) 244-254
Intraplate strain generally focuses in discrete zones, but despite the profound impact of this partitioning on global tectonics, geodynamics, and seismic hazard, the processes by which deformation becomes localized are not well understood. Such heterogeneous intraplate strain is exemplified in central Asia, where the Indo-Eurasian collision has caused widespread deformation...
Source modeling of the 2015 Mw 7.8 Nepal (Gorkha) earthquake sequence: Implications for geodynamics and earthquake hazards
Daniel E. McNamara, William L. Yeck, William D. Barnhart, V. Schulte-Pelkum, E. Bergman, L. B. Adhikari, Amod Dixit, S. E. Hough, Harley M. Benz, Paul S. Earle
2017, Tectonophysics (714-715) 21-30
The Gorkha earthquake on April 25th, 2015 was a long anticipated, low-angle thrust-faulting event on the shallow décollement between the India and Eurasia plates. We present a detailed multiple-event hypocenter relocation analysis of the Mw 7.8 Gorkha Nepal earthquake sequence, constrained by local seismic stations, and a geodetic rupture...
