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...
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...
Geospatial resources for the geologic community: The USGS National Map
Emitt C. Witt III
2015, Journal of Geology (123) 283-294
Geospatial data are a key component of investigating, interpreting, and communicating the geological sciences. Locating geospatial data can be time-consuming, which detracts from time spent on a study because these data are not obviously placed in central locations or are served from many disparate databases. The National Map of the...
Evaluating potential conservation conflicts between two listed species: Sea otters and black abalone
Peter T. Raimondi, Laura J. Jurgens, M. Tim Tinker
2015, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics (96) 3102-3108
Population consequences of endangered species interacting as predators and prey have been considered theoretically and legally, but rarely investigated in the field. We examined relationships between spatially variable populations of a predator, the California sea otter, Enhydra lutris nereis, and a prey species, the black abalone, Haliotis cracherodii. Both species are federally...
A comparison of thermal infrared to fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing for evaluation of groundwater discharge to surface water
Danielle K Hare, Martin A. Briggs, Donald O. Rosenberry, Dave Boutt, John W. Lane Jr.
2015, Journal of Hydrology (530) 153-166
Groundwater has a predictable thermal signature that can be used to locate discrete zones of discharge to surface water. As climate warms, surface water with strong groundwater influence will provide habitat stability and refuge for thermally stressed aquatic species, and is therefore critical to locate and protect. Alternatively, these discrete...
Observations of net soil exchange of CO2 in a dryland show experimental warming increases carbon losses in biocrust soils
Anthony N. Darrouzet-Nardi, Sasha C. Reed, Edmund E. Grote, Jayne Belnap
2015, Biogeochemistry 363-378
Many arid and semiarid ecosystems have soils covered with well-developed biological soil crust communities (biocrusts) made up of mosses, lichens, cyanobacteria, and heterotrophs living at the soil surface. These communities are a fundamental component of dryland ecosystems, and are critical to dryland carbon (C) cycling. To examine the effects of...
A broader definition of occupancy: A reply to Hayes and Monofils
Quresh Fatif, Martha M. Ellis, Courtney L. Amundson
2015, Journal of Wildlife Management (80) 192-194
Occupancy models are widely used to analyze presence–absence data for a variety of taxa while accounting for observation error (MacKenzie et al. 2002, 2006; Tyre et al. 2003; Royle and Dorazio 2008). Hayes and Monfils (2015) question their use for analyzing avian point count data...
Remote sensing systems – Platforms and sensors: Aerial, satellites, UAVs, optical, radar, and LiDAR
Sudhanshu S. Panda, Mahesh N. Rao, Prasad S. Thenkabail, James E. Fitzerald
2015, Book chapter, Remotely sensed data characterization, classification, and accuracies
The American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing defined remote sensing as the measurement or acquisition of information of some property of an object or phenomenon, by a recording device that is not in physical or intimate contact with the object or phenomenon under study (Colwell et al., 1983). Environmental Systems...
Rare earth elements in sedimentary phosphate deposits: Solution to the global REE crisis?
Poul Emsbo, Patrick I. McLaughlin, George N. Breit, Edward A. du Bray, Alan E. Koenig
2015, Gondwana Research (27) 776-785
The critical role of rare earth elements (REEs), particularly heavy REEs (HREEs), in high-tech industries has created a surge in demand that is quickly outstripping known global supply and has triggered a worldwide scramble to discover new sources. The chemical analysis of 23 sedimentary phosphate deposits (phosphorites) in the United...
Landsat—Earth observation satellites
U.S. Geological Survey
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3081
Since 1972, Landsat satellites have continuously acquired space-based images of the Earth’s land surface, providing data that serve as valuable resources for land use/land change research. The data are useful to a number of applications including forestry, agriculture, geology, regional planning, and education. Landsat is a joint effort of the...
Changes in seasonality and timing of peak streamflow in snow and semi-arid climates of the north-central United States, 1910–2012
Karen R. Ryberg, F. Adnan Akyuz, Gregg J. Wiche, Wei Lin
2015, Hydrological Processes (30) 1208-1218
Changes in the seasonality and timing of annual peak streamflow in the north-central USA are likely because of changes in precipitation and temperature regimes. A source of long-term information about flood events across the study area is the U.S. Geological Survey peak streamflow database. However, one challenge of answering climate-related...
Aquifer geometry, lithology, and water levels in the Anza–Terwilliger area—2013, Riverside and San Diego Counties, California
Matthew K. Landon, Andrew Y. Morita, Joseph M. Nawikas, Allen H. Christensen, Claudia C. Faunt, Victoria E. Langenheim
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5131
The population of the Anza–Terwilliger area relies solely on groundwater pumped from the alluvial deposits and surrounding bedrock formations for water supply. The size, characteristics, and current conditions of the aquifer system in the Anza–Terwilliger area are poorly understood, however. In response to these concerns, the U.S. Geological Survey,...
Integrating resource selection into spatial capture-recapture models for large carnivores
Kelly M. Proffitt, Joshua Goldberg, Mark Hebblewite, Robin E. Russell, Ben Jimenez, Hugh S. Robinson, Kristine Pilgrim, Michael K. Schwartz
2015, Ecosphere (6)
Wildlife managers need reliable methods to estimate large carnivore densities and population trends; yet large carnivores are elusive, difficult to detect, and occur at low densities making traditional approaches intractable. Recent advances in spatial capture-recapture (SCR) models have provided new approaches for monitoring trends in wildlife abundance and these methods...
Hydrogeology, hydrologic effects of development, and simulation of groundwater flow in the Borrego Valley, San Diego County, California
Claudia C. Faunt, Christina L. Stamos, Lorraine E. Flint, Michael T. Wright, Matthew K. Burgess, Michelle Sneed, Justin T. Brandt, Peter Martin, Alissa L. Coes
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5150
Executive Summary The Borrego Valley is a small valley (110 square miles) in the northeastern part of San Diego County, California. Although the valley is about 60 miles northeast of city of San Diego, it is separated from the Pacific Ocean coast by the mountains to the west and is...
Onshore industrial wind turbine locations for the United States up to March 2014
James E. Diffendorfer, Louisa Kramer, Zachary H. Ancona, Christopher P. Garrity
2015, Scientific Data
Wind energy is a rapidly growing form of renewable energy in the United States. While summary information on the total amounts of installed capacity are available by state, a free, centralized, national, turbine-level, geospatial dataset useful for scientific research, land and resource management, and other uses did not exist. Available...
Yellowstone wolf (Canis lupus) denisty predicted by elk (Cervus elaphus) biomass
L. David Mech, Shannon Barber-Meyer
2015, Canadian Journal of Zoology (93) 499-502
The Northern Range (NR) of Yellowstone National Park (YNP) hosts a higher prey biomass density in the form of elk (Cervus elaphus L., 1758) than any other system of gray wolves (Canis lupus L., 1758) and prey reported. Therefore, it is important to determine whether that wolf–prey system fits a long-standing model...
Persistent U(IV) and U(VI) following in-situ recovery (ISR) mining of a sandstone uranium deposit, Wyoming, USA
Tanya J. Gallegos, Kate M. Campbell, Robert A. Zielinski, P.W. Reimus, J.T. Clay, N. Janot, J. J. Bargar, William Benzel
2015, Applied Geochemistry (63) 222-234
Drill-core samples from a sandstone-hosted uranium (U) deposit in Wyoming were characterized to determine the abundance and distribution of uranium following in-situ recovery (ISR) mining with oxygen- and carbon dioxide-enriched water. Concentrations of uranium, collected from ten depth intervals, ranged from 5 to 1920 ppm. A...
Groundwater/surface-water interactions in the Bad River Watershed, Wisconsin
Andrew T. Leaf, Michael N. Fienen, Randall J. Hunt, Cheryl A. Buchwald
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5162
A groundwater-flow model was developed for the Bad River Watershed and surrounding area by using the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) finite-difference code MODFLOW-NWT. The model simulates steady-state groundwater-flow and base flow in streams by using the streamflow routing (SFR) package. The objectives of this study were to: (1) develop an...
Geohydrology and water quality of the stratified-drift aquifers in Upper Buttermilk Creek and Danby Creek Valleys, Town of Danby, Tompkins County, New York
Todd S. Miller
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5138
In 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Town of Danby and the Tompkins County Planning Department, began a study of the stratified-drift aquifers in the upper Buttermilk Creek and Danby Creek valleys in the Town of Danby, Tompkins County, New York. In the northern part of the...
NEXRAD quantitative precipitation estimates, data acquisition, and processing for the DuPage County, Illinois, streamflow-simulation modeling system
Terry W. Ortel, Ryan R. Spies
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3076
Next-Generation Radar (NEXRAD) has become an integral component in the estimation of precipitation (Kitzmiller and others, 2013). The high spatial and temporal resolution of NEXRAD has revolutionized the ability to estimate precipitation across vast regions, which is especially beneficial in areas without a dense rain-gage network. With the improved precipitation...
Biofilm formation of Francisella noatunensis subsp. orientalis
Esteban Soto, Iona Halliday-Wimmonds, Stewart Francis, Michael T. Kearney, John D. Hansen
2015, Veterinary Microbiology (181) 313-317
Francisella noatunensis subsp. orientalis (Fno) is an emergent fish pathogen in both marine and fresh water environments. The bacterium is suspected to persist in the environment even without the presence of a suitable fish host. In the present study, the influence of different abiotic factors such as salinity and temperature were used to...
Assessment and Mmanagement of North American horseshoe crab populations, with emphasis on a multispecies framework for Delaware Bay, U.S.A. populations: Chapter 24
Michael J. Millard, John A. Sweka, Conor P. McGowan, David R. Smith
2015, Book chapter, Changing Global Perspectives on Horseshoe Crab Biology, Conservation and Management
The horseshoe crab fishery on the US Atlantic coast represents a compelling fishery management story for many reasons, including ecological complexity, health and human safety ramifications, and socio-economic conflicts. Knowledge of stock status and assessment and monitoring capabilities for the species have increased greatly in the last 15 years and...
Evidence of population resistance to extreme low flows in a fluvial-dependent fish species
Rachel A. Katz, Mary Freeman
2015, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (11) 1776-1787
Extreme low streamflows are natural disturbances to aquatic populations. Species in naturally intermittent streams display adaptations that enhance persistence during extreme events; however, the fate of populations in perennial streams during unprecedented low-flow periods is not well-understood. Biota requiring swift-flowing habitats may be especially vulnerable to flow reductions. We estimated...
Estimating occupancy dynamics for large-scale monitoring networks: amphibian breeding occupancy across protected areas in the northeast United States
David A.W. Miller, Evan H. Campbell Grant
2015, Ecology and Evolution (5) 4735-4746
Regional monitoring strategies frequently employ a nested sampling design where a finite set of study areas from throughout a region are selected within which intensive sub-sampling occurs. This sampling protocol naturally lends itself to a hierarchical analysis to account for dependence among sub-samples. Implementing such an analysis within a classic...
