Taxonomic characterization of honey bee (Apis mellifera) pollen foraging based on non-overlapping paired-end sequencing of nuclear ribosomal loci
Robert S. Cornman, Clint Otto, Deborah D. Iwanowicz, Jeffery S Pettis
2015, PLoS ONE (10) 1-26
Identifying plant taxa that honey bees (Apis mellifera) forage upon is of great apicultural interest, but traditional methods are labor intensive and may lack resolution. Here we evaluate a high-throughput genetic barcoding approach to characterize trap-collected pollen from multiple North Dakota apiaries across multiple years. We used the Illumina MiSeq...
Chemical concentrations and instantaneous loads, Green River to the Lower Duwamish Waterway near Seattle, Washington, 2013–15
Kathleen E. Conn, Robert W. Black, Ann M. Vanderpool-Kimura, James R. Foreman, Norman T. Peterson, Craig A. Senter, Stephen K. Sissel
2015, Data Series 973
In November 2013, U.S. Geological Survey streamgaging equipment was installed at a historical water-quality station on the Duwamish River, Washington, within the tidal influence at river kilometer 16.7 (U.S. Geological Survey site 12113390; Duwamish River at Golf Course at Tukwila, WA). Publicly available, real-time continuous data includes river streamflow, stream...
Hydrogeology of the Owego-Apalachin Elementary School geothermal fields, Tioga County, New York
John H. Williams, William M. Kappel
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5155
The hydrogeology of the Owego-Apalachin Elementary School geothermal fields, which penetrate saline water and methane in fractured upper Devonian age bedrock in the Owego Creek valley, south-central New York, was characterized through the analysis of drilling and geophysical logs, water-level monitoring data, and specific-depth water samples. Hydrogeologic insights gained during...
Evaluating connection of aquifers to springs and streams, Great Basin National Park and vicinity, Nevada
David E. Prudic, Donald S. Sweetkind, Tracie R. Jackson, K. Elaine Dotson, Russell W. Plume, Christine E. Hatch, Keith J. Halford
2015, Professional Paper 1819
Federal agencies that oversee land management for much of the Snake Range in eastern Nevada, including the management of Great Basin National Park by the National Park Service, need to understand the potential extent of adverse effects to federally managed lands from nearby groundwater development. As a result, this study...
Benthic response to water quality and biotic pressures in lower south San Francisco Bay, Alviso Slough, and Coyote Creek
Francis Parchaso, Janet K. Thompson, Jeff S. Crauder, Rosa I. Anduaga, Sarah A. Pearson
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1234
Benthic invertebrate communities are monitored because the composition of those communities can effect and be affected by the water quality of an aquatic system. Benthic communities use and sometimes regulate the cycling of essential elements (for example, carbon). Benthic invertebrate taxa may also indicate acutely and chronically stressful environments...
Estimating natural recharge in San Gorgonio Pass watersheds, California, 1913–2012
Joseph A. Hevesi, Allen H. Christensen
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5122
A daily precipitation-runoff model was developed to estimate spatially and temporally distributed recharge for groundwater basins in the San Gorgonio Pass area, southern California. The recharge estimates are needed to define transient boundary conditions for a groundwater-flow model being developed to evaluate the effects of pumping and climate on...
Establishing conservation baselines with dynamic distribution models for bat populations facing imminent decline
Thomas J. Rodhouse, Patricia C. Ormsbee, Kathryn M. Irvine, Lee A. Vierling, Joseph M. Szewczak, Kerri T. Vierling
2015, Diversity and Distributions (21) 1401-1413
Aim Bat mortality rates from white-nose syndrome and wind power development are unprecedented. Cryptic and wide-ranging behaviours of bats make them difficult to survey, and population estimation is often intractable. We advance a model-based framework for making spatially explicit predictions about summertime distributions of bats from capture and acoustic surveys. Motivated...
The U.S. Geological Survey coal quality (COALQUAL) database version 3.0
Curtis A. Palmer, Charles L. Oman, Andy J. Park, James A. Luppens
2015, Data Series 975
Since the mid-1970s, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has maintained a coal quality database of national scope named USCHEM, which currently contains data for over 13,000 samples. A subset of the USCHEM database called COALQUAL Version 1.3 was initially published in 1994 and was followed by Version 2.0 in 1997....
Regional potentiometric surface of the Ozark aquifer in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, November 2014–January 2015
Anna M. Nottmeier
2015, Scientific Investigations Map 3348
The Ozark aquifer, within the Ozark Plateaus aquifer system (herein referred to as the “Ozark system”), is the primary groundwater source in the Ozark Plateaus physiographic province (herein referred to as the “Ozark Plateaus”) of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Groundwater from the Ozark system has historically been an important...
Quality of surface water in Missouri, water year 2014
Miya N. Barr
2015, Data Series 971
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, designed and operates a series of monitoring stations on streams and springs throughout Missouri known as the Ambient Water-Quality Monitoring Network. During the 2014 water year (October 1, 2013, through September 30, 2014), data were collected at...
Monitoring of vegetation response to elk population and habitat management in Rocky Mountain National Park, 2008–14
Linda Zeigenfuss, Therese L. Johnson
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1216
Since 2008, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado has been implementing an elk and vegetation management plan with the goal of managing elk populations and their habitats to improve the condition of key vegetation communities on elk winter range. Management actions that have been taken thus far include small reductions...
Upstream factors affecting Tualatin River algae—Tracking the 2008 Anabaena algae bloom to Wapato Lake, Oregon
Stewart A. Rounds, Kurt D. Carpenter, Kristel J. Fesler, Jessica L. Dorsey
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5178
Significant Findings A large bloom that included floating mats of the blue-green algae Anabaena flos-aquae occurred in the lower 20 miles of the Tualatin River in northwestern Oregon between July 7 and July 17, 2008. The floating bloom was deemed a hazard to recreational users of the river due to the potential...
csa2sac—A program for computing discharge from continuous slope-area stage data
Stephen M. Wiele
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1229
Introduction Continuous Slope-Area (CSA) gages were developed by the Arizona Water Science Center to enable the estimation of hydrographs when direct measurements of discharge cannot be made (Smith and others, 2010). CSA gages extend standard U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) methods for determining peak discharges to mid and high flows over a...
Land-cover types, shoreline positions, and sand extents derived From Landsat satellite imagery, Assateague Island to Metompkin Island, Maryland and Virginia, 1984 to 2014
Julie Bernier, Steven H. Douglas, Joseph F. Terrano, John A. Barras, Nathaniel G. Plant, Christopher G. Smith
2015, Data Series 968
The U.S. Geological Survey has a long history of responding to and documenting the impacts of storms along the Nation’s coasts and incorporating these data into storm impact and coastal change vulnerability assessments. These studies, however, have traditionally focused on sandy shorelines and sandy barrier-island systems, without consideration of impacts...
Avian influenza ecology in North Atlantic sea ducks: Not all ducks are created equal
Jeffrey S. Hall, Robin E. Russell, J. Christian Franson, Catherine Soos, Robert J. Dusek, R. Bradford Allen, Sean W. Nashold, Joshua L. Teslaa, Jon Einar Jonsson, Jennifer R. Ballard, Naomi Jnae Harms, Justin D. Brown
2015, PLoS ONE (10) 1-16
Wild waterfowl are primary reservoirs of avian influenza viruses (AIV). However the role of sea ducks in the ecology of avian influenza, and how that role differs from freshwater ducks, has not been examined. We obtained and analyzed sera from North Atlantic sea ducks and determined the seroprevalence in those...
Standard operating procedures for collection of soil and sediment samples for the Sediment-bound Contaminant Resiliency and Response (SCoRR) strategy pilot study
Shawn C. Fisher, Timothy J. Reilly, Daniel K. Jones, William Benzel, Dale W. Griffin, Keith A. Loftin, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Jonathan A. Cohl
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1188-B
An understanding of the effects on human and ecological health brought by major coastal storms or flooding events is typically limited because of a lack of regionally consistent baseline and trends data in locations proximal to potential contaminant sources and mitigation activities, sensitive ecosystems, and recreational facilities where exposures are...
Mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus maculosus ) spatial distribution, breeding water depth, and use of artificial spawning habitat in the Detroit River
Jaquelyn M. Craig, David A. Mifsud, Andrew S. Briggs, James C. Boase, Gregory W. Kennedy
2015, Herpetological Conservation and Biology (10) 926-934
Mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus maculosus) populations have been declining in the Great Lakes region of North America. However, during fisheries assessments in the Detroit River, we documented Mudpuppy reproduction when we collected all life stages from egg through adult as by-catch in fisheries assessments. Ten years of fisheries sampling resulted in...
California State Waters map series — Offshore of Pigeon Point, California
Guy R. Cochrane, Janet Watt, Peter Dartnell, H. Gary Greene, Mercedes D. Erdey, Bryan E. Dieter, Nadine E. Golden, Samuel Y. Johnson, Charles A. Endris, Stephen R. Hartwell, Rikk G. Kvitek, Clifton W. Davenport, Lisa M. Krigsman, Andrew C. Ritchie, Ray W. Sliter, David P. Finlayson, Katherine L. Maier
Guy R. Cochrane, Susan A. Cochran, editor(s)
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1232
Introduction In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration,...
Sediment transport and evaluation of sediment surrogate ratings in the Kootenai River near Bonners Ferry, Idaho, Water Years 2011–14
Molly S. Wood, Ryan L. Fosness, Alexandra B. Etheridge
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5169
The Kootenai River white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) and other native fish species are culturally important to the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, but their habitat and recruitment have been affected by anthropogenic changes to the river. Although the interconnections among anthropogenic changes and their impacts on fish are complex, the Kootenai...
Comparison of U.S. net import reliance for nonfuel mineral commodities—A 60-year retrospective (1954–1984–2014)
Steven M. Fortier, DeYoung Jr., Elizabeth S. Sangine, Emily K. Schnebele
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3082
Introduction The economic vitality and national security of the United States depend on the reliable supply of numerous nonfuel mineral commodities. Over the past six decades, many of these commodities have been sourced increasingly from outside the United States. The mix of commodities for which the United States is import dependent...
Mapping geoelectric fields during magnetic storms: Synthetic analysis of empirical United States impedances
Paul A. Bedrosian, Jeffrey J. Love
2015, Geophysical Research Letters (42) 10160-10170
Empirical impedance tensors obtained from EarthScope magnetotelluric data at sites distributed across the midwestern United States are used to examine the feasibility of mapping magnetic storm induction of geoelectric fields. With these tensors, in order to isolate the effects of Earth conductivity structure, we perform a synthetic analysis—calculating geoelectric field...
The role of dynamic surface water-groundwater exchange on streambed denitrification in a first-order, low-relief agricultural watershed
Mina N. Rahimi Kazerooni, Hedeff I. Essaid, John T. Wilson
2015, Water Resources Research (51) 9514-9538
The role of temporally varying surface water-groundwater (SW-GW) exchange on nitrate removal by streambed denitrification was examined along a reach of Leary Weber Ditch (LWD), Indiana, a small, first-order, low-relief agricultural watershed within the Upper Mississippi River basin, using data collected in 2004 and 2005. Stream stage, GW heads (H),...
Shift in Global Tantalum Mine Production, 2000–2014
Donald I. Bleiwas, John F. Papp, Thomas R. Yager
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3079
Introduction Tantalum has a unique set of properties that make it useful in a number of diverse applications. The ability of the metal to store and release electrical energy makes it ideally suited for use in certain types of capacitors that are widely used in modern electronics. Approximately 60 percent of...
A new method to generate a high-resolution global distribution map of lake chlorophyll
Michael J Sayers, Amanda G. Grimm, Robert A. Shuchman, Andrew M. Deines, David B. Bunnell, Zachary B Raymer, Mark W. Rogers, Whitney Woelmer, David Bennion, Colin N. Brooks, Matthew A. Whitley, David M. Warner, Justin G. Mychek-Londer
2015, International Journal of Remote Sensing (36) 1942-1964
A new method was developed, evaluated, and applied to generate a global dataset of growing-season chlorophyll-a (chl) concentrations in 2011 for freshwater lakes. Chl observations from freshwater lakes are valuable for estimating lake productivity as well as assessing the role that these lakes play in carbon budgets. The standard 4 km...
Hydrologic data for the Walker River Basin, Nevada and California, water years 2010–14
Michael T. Pavelko, Erin L. Orozco
2015, Data Series 967
Walker Lake is a threatened and federally protected desert terminal lake in western Nevada. To help protect the desert terminal lake and the surrounding watershed, the Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Geological Survey have been studying the hydrology of the Walker River Basin in Nevada and California since 2004. Hydrologic...
