Evaluation of the U.S. Geological Survey standard elevation products in a two-dimensional hydraulic modeling application for a low relief coastal floodplain
Emitt C. Witt III
2015, Journal of Hydrology (531) 759-767
Growing use of two-dimensional (2-D) hydraulic models has created a need for high resolution data to support flood volume estimates, floodplain specific engineering data, and accurate flood inundation scenarios. Elevation data are a critical input to these models that guide the flood-wave across the landscape allowing the computation of valuable...
Increased land use by Chukchi Sea polar bears in relation to changing sea ice conditions
Karyn D. Rode, Ryan H. Wilson, Eric V. Regehr, Michelle St. Martin, David C. Douglas, Jay Olson
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
Recent observations suggest that polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are increasingly using land habitats in some parts of their range, where they have minimal access to their preferred prey, likely in response to loss of their sea ice habitat associated with climatic warming. We used location data from female polar bears...
Alpine biodiversity and assisted migration: The case of the American pika (Ochotona princeps)
Jennifer L. Wilkening, Chris Ray, Nathan G. Ramsay, Kelly Klingler
2015, Biodiversity (16) 1-13
Alpine mammals are predicted to be among the species most threatened by climate change, due to the projected loss and further fragmentation of alpine habitats. As temperature or precipitation regimes change, alpine mammals may also be faced with insurmountable barriers to dispersal. The slow rate or inability to adjust to...
A practical guide to the use of major elements, trace elements, and isotopes in compositional data analysis: Applications for deep formation brine geochemistry
Madalyn S. Blondes, Mark A. Engle, Nicholas Geboy
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the International Workshop on Compositional Data Analysis
In the geosciences, isotopic ratios and trace element concentrations are often used along with major element concentrations to help determine sources of and processes affecting geochemical variation. Compositional Data Analysis (CoDA) is a set of tools, generally attuned to major element data, concerned with the proper statistical treatment and removal...
Current land bird distribution and trends in population abundance between 1982 and 2012 on Rota, Mariana Islands
Richard J. Camp, Kevin W. Brinck, P. Marcos Gorresen, Fred A. Amidon, Paul M. Radley, S. Paul Berkowitz, Paul C. Banko
2015, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (6) 511-540
The western Pacific island of Rota is the fourth largest human-inhabited island in the Mariana archipelago and designated an Endemic Bird Area. Between 1982 and 2012, 12 point-transect distance-sampling surveys were conducted to assess bird population status. Surveys did not consistently sample the entire island; thus, we used a ratio...
Meteorological variables to aid forecasting deep slab avalanches on persistent weak layers
Alex Marienthal, Jordy Hendrikx, Karl W. Birkeland, Kathryn M. Irvine
2015, Cold Regions Science and Technology (120) 227-236
Deep slab avalanches are particularly challenging to forecast. These avalanches are difficult to trigger, yet when they release they tend to propagate far and can result in large and destructive avalanches. We utilized a 44-year record of avalanche control and meteorological data from Bridger Bowl ski area in southwest Montana...
Changes in depth occupied by Great Lakes lake whitefish populations and the influence of survey design
Michael D. Rennie, Brian Weidel, Randall M. Claramunt, Erin S. Dunlob
2015, Journal of Great Lakes Research (41) 1150-1161
Understanding fish habitat use is important in determining conditions that ultimately affect fish energetics, growth and reproduction. Great Lakes lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) have demonstrated dramatic changes in growth and life history traits since the appearance of dreissenid mussels in the Great Lakes, but the role of habitat occupancy in...
Strong-motion observations of the M 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake sequence and development of the N-shake strong-motion network
Amod Dixit, Adam T. Ringler, Danielle F. Sumy, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Susan E. Hough, Stacey Martin, Steven Gibbons, James H. Luetgert, John Galetzka, Surya Shrestha, Sudhir Rajaure, Daniel E. McNamara
2015, Seismological Research Letters (86) 1533-1539
We present and describe strong-motion data observations from the 2015 M 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake sequence collected using existing and new Quake-Catcher Network (QCN) and U.S. Geological Survey NetQuakes sensors located in the Kathmandu Valley. A comparison of QCN data with waveforms recorded by a conventional strong-motion (NetQuakes) instrument validates...
Interpretation of S waves generated by near-surface chemical explosions at SAFOD
Fred F. Pollitz, William L. Ellsworth, Justin L. Rubinstein
2015, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (105) 2835-2851
A series of near-surface chemical explosions conducted at the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) were recorded by high-frequency downhole receiver arrays in separate experiments in November 2003 and May 2005. The 2003 experiment involved ∼100 kg shots detonated along a 46-km-long line (Hole–Ryberg line) centered on SAFOD and recorded...
High-resolution remote sensing of water quality in the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary
Cedric G. Fichot, Bryan D. Downing, Brian A. Bergamaschi, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, David R. Thompson, Michelle M. Gierach
2015, Environmental Science & Technology (50) 573-583
The San Francisco Bay–Delta Estuary watershed is a major source of freshwater for California and a profoundly human-impacted environment. The water quality monitoring that is critical to the management of this important water resource and ecosystem relies primarily on a system of fixed water-quality monitoring stations, but the limited spatial...
Tidal marsh susceptibility to sea-level rise: importance of local-scale models
Karen M. Thorne, Kevin J. Buffington, Deborah L. Elliott-Fisk, John Y. Takekawa
2015, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (3) 290-304
Increasing concern over sea-level rise impacts to coastal tidal marsh ecosystems has led to modeling efforts to anticipate outcomes for resource management decision making. Few studies on the Pacific coast of North America have modeled sea-level rise marsh susceptibility at a scale relevant to local wildlife populations and plant communities....
Evaluation of the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) air temperature data products
Lei Ji, Gabriel B. Senay, James P. Verdin
2015, Journal of Hydrometeorology (16) 2463-2480
There is a high demand for agrohydrologic models to use gridded near-surface air temperature data as the model input for estimating regional and global water budgets and cycles. The Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) developed by combining simulation models with observations provides a long-term gridded meteorological dataset at the...
Quantifying the adaptive cycle
David G. Angeler, Craig R. Allen, Ahjond S. Garmestani, Lance H. Gunderson, Olle Hjerne, Monika Winder
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
The adaptive cycle was proposed as a conceptual model to portray patterns of change in complex systems. Despite the model having potential for elucidating change across systems, it has been used mainly as a metaphor, describing system dynamics qualitatively. We use a quantitative approach for testing premises (reorganisation, conservatism, adaptation)...
Fire effects on aquatic ecosystems: An assessment of the current state of the science
Rebecca J. Bixby, Scott D. Cooper, Robert E. Gresswell, Lee E. Brown, Clifford N. Dahm, Kathleen A. Dwire
2015, Freshwater Science (34) 1340-1350
Fire is a prevalent feature of many landscapes and has numerous and complex effects on geological, hydrological, ecological, and economic systems. In some regions, the frequency and intensity of wildfire have increased in recent years and are projected to escalate with predicted climatic and landuse changes. In addition, prescribed burns...
Evaluation of three aging techniques and back-calculated growth for introduced Blue Catfish from Lake Oconee, Georgia
Michael D. Homer Jr., James T. Peterson, Cecil A. Jennings
2015, Southeastern Naturalist (14) 740-756
Back-calculation of length-at-age from otoliths and spines is a common technique employed in fisheries biology, but few studies have compared the precision of data collected with this method for catfish populations. We compared precision of back-calculated lengths-at-age for an introducedIctalurus furcatus (Blue Catfish) population among 3 commonly used cross-sectioning techniques....
Combining NLCD and MODIS to create a land cover-albedo database for the continental United States
J. Wickham, Christopher A. Barnes, M.S. Nash, T.G. Wade
2015, Remote Sensing of Environment (170) 143-152
Land surface albedo is an essential climate variable that is tightly linked to land cover, such that specific land cover classes (e.g., deciduous broadleaf forest, cropland) have characteristic albedos. Despite the normative of land-cover class specific albedos, there is considerable variability in albedo within a land cover class. The National...
Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve: Geologic resources inventory report
Chad P. Hults, Christina A. Neal
2015, Natural Resource Report NPS/NRSS/GRD/NRR—2015/1033
This GRI report is a companion document to previously completed GRI digital geologic map data. It was written for resource managers to support science-informed decision making. It may also be useful for interpretation. The report was prepared using available geologic information, and the NPS Geologic Resources Division conducted no new...
Large-scale control site selection for population monitoring: an example assessing Sage-grouse trends
Bradley C. Fedy, Michael S. O’Donnell, Zachary H. Bowen
2015, Wildlife Society Bulletin (39) 700-712
Human impacts on wildlife populations are widespread and prolific and understanding wildlife responses to human impacts is a fundamental component of wildlife management. The first step to understanding wildlife responses is the documentation of changes in wildlife population parameters, such as population size. Meaningful assessment of population changes in potentially...
Estimating the risks for adverse effects of total phosphorus in receiving streams with the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM)
Gregory E. Granato, Susan C. Jones
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Ecology and Transportation (ICOET 2015)
Studies from North Carolina (NC) indicate that increasing concentrations of total phosphorus (TP) and other constituents are correlated to adverse effects on stream ecosystems as evidenced by differences in benthic macroinvertebrate populations in streams across the state. As a result, stringent in-stream criteria based on the Water Quality Assessed by...
Seismic source characterization for the 2014 update of the U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model
Morgan P. Moschetti, Peter M. Powers, Mark D. Petersen, Oliver S. Boyd, Rui Chen, Edward H. Field, Arthur D. Frankel, Kathleen Haller, Stephen Harmsen, Charles S. Mueller, Russell Wheeler, Yuehua Zeng
2015, Earthquake Spectra (31) S31-S57
We present the updated seismic source characterization (SSC) for the 2014 update of the National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) for the conterminous United States. Construction of the seismic source models employs the methodology that was developed for the 1996 NSHM but includes new and updated data, data types, source models,...
Seismic hazard in the Intermountain West
Kathleen Haller, Morgan P. Moschetti, Charles Mueller, Sanaz Rezaeian, Mark D. Petersen, Yuehua Zeng
2015, Earthquake Spectra (31) S149-S176
The 2014 national seismic-hazard model for the conterminous United States incorporates new scientific results and important model adjustments. The current model includes updates to the historical catalog, which is spatially smoothed using both fixed-length and adaptive-length smoothing kernels. Fault-source characterization improved by adding faults, revising rates of activity, and incorporating...
Low resistivity and permeability in actively deforming shear zones on the San Andreas Fault at SAFOD
Carolyn A. Morrow, David A. Lockner, Stephen H. Hickman
2015, Journal of Geophysical Research (120) 8240-8258
The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) scientific drillhole near Parkfield, California crosses the San Andreas Fault at a depth of 2.7 km. Downhole measurements and analysis of core retrieved from Phase 3 drilling reveal two narrow, actively deforming zones of smectite-clay gouge within a roughly 200 m-wide...
Hydrologic implications of GRACE satellite data in the Colorado River Basin
Bridget R. Scanlon, Zizhan Zhang, Robert C. Reedy, Donald R. Pool, Himanshu Save, Di Long, Jianli Chen, David M. Wolock, Brian D. Conway, Daniel Winester
2015, Water Resources Research (51) 9891-9903
Use of GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellites for assessing global water resources is rapidly expanding. Here we advance application of GRACE satellites by reconstructing long-term total water storage (TWS) changes from ground-based monitoring and modeling data. We applied the approach to the Colorado River Basin which has experienced...
The 2014 United States National Seismic Hazard Model
Mark D. Petersen, Morgan P. Moschetti, Peter M. Powers, Charles Mueller, Kathleen Haller, Arthur D. Frankel, Yuehua Zeng, Sanaz Rezaeian, Stephen Harmsen, Oliver S. Boyd, Edward H. Field, Rui Chen, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Nico Luco, Russell Wheeler, Robert Williams, Anna H. Olsen
2015, Earthquake Spectra (31) S1-S30
New seismic hazard maps have been developed for the conterminous United States using the latest data, models, and methods available for assessing earthquake hazard. The hazard models incorporate new information on earthquake rupture behavior observed in recent earthquakes; fault studies that use both geologic and geodetic strain rate data; earthquake...
Annual survival rate estimate of satellite transmitter–marked eastern population greater sandhill cranes
David L. Fronczak, David E. Andersen, Everett E. Hanna, Thomas R. Cooper
2015, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (6) 464-471
Several surveys have documented the increasing population size and geographic distribution of Eastern Population greater sandhill cranes Grus canadensis tabida since the 1960s. Sport hunting of this population of sandhill cranes started in 2012 following the provisions of the Eastern Population Sandhill Crane Management Plan. However, there are currently no...
