FishVis, A regional decision support tool for identifying vulnerabilities of riverine habitat and fishes to climate change in the Great Lakes Region
Jana S. Stewart, S. Alex Covert, Nick J. Estes, Stephen M. Westenbroek, Damon Krueger, Daniel J. Wieferich, Michael T. Slattery, John D. Lyons, James E. McKenna Jr., Dana M. Infante, Jennifer L. Bruce
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5124
Climate change is expected to alter the distributions and community composition of stream fishes in the Great Lakes region in the 21st century, in part as a result of altered hydrological systems (stream temperature, streamflow, and habitat). Resource managers need information and tools to understand where fish species and stream...
Thermal regimes, nonnative trout, and their influences on native Bull Trout in the Upper Klamath River Basin, Oregon
Joseph R. Benjamin, Jeannie Heltzel, Jason B. Dunham, Michael Heck, Nolan P. Banish
2016, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (145) 1318-1330
The occurrence of fish species may be strongly influenced by a stream’s thermal regime (magnitude, frequency, variation, and timing). For instance, magnitude and frequency provide information about sublethal temperatures, variability in temperature can affect behavioral thermoregulation and bioenergetics, and timing of thermal events may cue life history events, such as...
Flood inundation maps for the Wabash River at New Harmony, Indiana
Kathleen K. Fowler
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5119
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 3.68-mile reach of the Wabash River extending 1.77 miles upstream and 1.91 miles downstream from streamgage 03378500 at New Harmony, 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...
Evaluating models of population process in a threatened population of Steller’s eiders: A retrospective approach
Kylee Dunham, J. Barry Grand
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1062
The Alaskan breeding population of Steller’s eiders (Polysticta stelleri) was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1997 in response to perceived declines in abundance throughout their breeding and nesting range. Aerial surveys suggest the breeding population is small and highly variable in number, with zero birds counted...
Viability of the Alaskan breeding population of Steller’s eiders
Kylee Dunham, J. Barry Grand
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1084
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is tasked with setting objective and measurable criteria for delisting species or populations listed under the Endangered Species Act. Determining the acceptable threshold for extinction risk for any species or population is a challenging task, particularly when facing marked uncertainty. The Alaskan breeding population...
Atmospheric inputs of organic matter to a forested watershed: Variations from storm to storm over the seasons
Lidiia Iavorivska, Elizabeth W. Boyer, Matthew P. Miller, Michael G. Brown, Terrie Vasilopoulos, Jose D. Fuentes, Christopher J. Duffy
2016, Atmospheric Environment (147) 284-295
The objectives of this study were to determine the quantity and chemical composition of precipitation inputs of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to a forested watershed; and to characterize the associated temporal variability. We sampled most precipitation that occurred from May 2012 through August 2013 at the Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone...
Climate change is advancing spring onset across the U.S. national park system
William B. Monahan, Alyssa Rosemartin, Katharine L. Gerst, Nicholas A. Fisichelli, Toby R. Ault, Mark D. Schwartz, John E. Gross, Jake F. Weltzin
2016, Ecosphere (7) 1-17
Many U.S. national parks are already at the extreme warm end of their historical temperature distributions. With rapidly warming conditions, park resource management will be enhanced by information on seasonality of climate that supports adjustments in the timing of activities such as treating invasive species, operating visitor facilities, and scheduling...
Potential effects of climate change on streamflow for seven watersheds in eastern and central Montana
Katherine J. Chase, Adel E. Haj, R. Steven Regan, Roland J. Viger
2016, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies (7) 69-81
Study regionEastern and central Montana.Study focusFish in Northern Great Plains streams tolerate extreme conditions including heat, cold, floods, and drought; however changes in streamflow associated with long-term climate change may render some prairie streams uninhabitable for current fish species. To better understand future hydrology of these...
Large-scale changes in bloater growth and condition in Lake Huron
Carson G. Prichard, Edward F. Roseman, Kevin M. Keeler, Timothy P. O’Brien, Stephen C. Riley
2016, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (145) 1241-1251
Native Bloaters Coregonus hoyi have exhibited multiple strong year-classes since 2005 and now are the most abundant benthopelagic offshore prey fish in Lake Huron, following the crash of nonnative AlewivesAlosa pseudoharengus and substantial declines in nonnative Rainbow Smelt Osmerus mordax. Despite recent recoveries in Bloater abundance, marketable-size (>229 mm) Bloaters...
Automatic delineation of seacliff limits using lidar-derived high-resolution DEMs in southern California
Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Cindy A. Thatcher, Amy C. Foxgrover, Patrick L. Barnard, John Brock, Adam Young
2016, Journal of Coastal Research 162-173
Seacliff erosion is a serious hazard with implications for coastal management and is often estimated using successive hand-digitized cliff tops or bases (toe) to assess cliff retreat. Even if efforts are made to standardize manual digitizing and eliminate subjectivity, the delineation of cliffs is time-consuming and depends on the analyst's...
Evaluating land cover influences on model uncertainties—A case study of cropland carbon dynamics in the Mid-Continent Intensive Campaign region
Zhengpeng Li, Shuguang Liu, Xuesong Zhang, Tristram O. West, Stephen M. Ogle, Naijun Zhou
2016, Ecological Modelling (337) 176-187
Quantifying spatial and temporal patterns of carbon sources and sinks and their uncertainties across agriculture-dominated areas remains challenging for understanding regional carbon cycles. Characteristics of local land cover inputs could impact the regional carbon estimates but the effect has not been fully evaluated in the past. Within the North American...
Effects of water-supply reservoirs on streamflow in Massachusetts
Sara B. Levin
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5123
State and local water-resource managers need modeling tools to help them manage and protect water-supply resources for both human consumption and ecological needs. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, has developed a decision-support tool to estimate the effects of reservoirs on natural streamflow....
Delineation of areas contributing groundwater to selected receiving surface water bodies for long-term average hydrologic conditions from 1968 to 1983 for Long Island, New York
Paul E. Misut, Jack Monti, Jr.
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5138
To assist resource managers and planners in developing informed strategies to address nitrogen loading to coastal water bodies of Long Island, New York, the U.S. Geological Survey and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation initiated a program to delineate a comprehensive dataset of groundwater recharge areas (or areas...
Using an interlaboratory study to revise methods for conducting 10-d to 42-d water or sediment toxicity tests with Hyalella azteca
Chris D. Ivey, Christopher G. Ingersoll, William G. Brumbaugh, Edward J. Hammer, David R. Mount, J. Russell Hockett, Teresa J. Norberg-King, Dave Soucek, Lisa Taylor
2016, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (35) 2439-2447
Studies have been conducted to refine US Environmental Protection Agency, ASTM International, and Environment Canada standard methods for conducting 42-d reproduction tests with Hyalella azteca in water or in sediment. Modifications to the H. azteca method include better-defined ionic composition requirements for exposure water (i.e., >15 mg/L of chloride and >0.02 mg/L...
Characterization of fractures and flow zones in a contaminated crystalline-rock aquifer in the Tylerville section of Haddam, Connecticut
Carole D. Johnson, Kristal F. Kiel, Peter K. Joesten, Katherine L. Pappas
2016, Data Series 1020
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, investigated the characteristics of the bedrock aquifer in the Tylerville section of Haddam, Connecticut, from June to August 2014. As part of this investigation, geophysical logs were collected from six water-supply wells and were analyzed...
Economic value of angling on the Colorado River at Lees Ferry: Using secondary data to estimate the influence of seasonality
Lucas S. Bair, David L. Rogowski, Christopher Neher
2016, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (36) 1229-1239
Glen Canyon Dam (GCD) on the Colorado River in northern Arizona provides water storage, flood control, and power system benefits to approximately 40 million people who rely on water and energy resources in the Colorado River basin. Downstream resources (e.g., angling, whitewater floating) in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (GCNRA)...
Paleomagnetic correlation of basalt flows in selected coreholes near the Advanced Test Reactor Complex, the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, and along the southern boundary, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho
Mary K.V. Hodges, Duane E. Champion
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5131
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, used paleomagnetic data from 18 coreholes to construct three cross sections of subsurface basalt flows in the southern part of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). These cross sections, containing descriptions of the subsurface horizontal and vertical distribution...
Status of groundwater quality in the Santa Barbara Study Unit, 2011: California GAMA Priority Basin Project
Tracy A. Davis, Justin T. Kulongoski
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5112
Groundwater quality in the 48-square-mile Santa Barbara study unit was investigated in 2011 as part of the California State Water Resources Control Board’s Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program Priority Basin Project. The study unit is mostly in Santa Barbara County and is in the Transverse and Selected...
Why do trees die? Characterizing the drivers of background tree mortality
Adrian J. Das, Nathan L. Stephenson, Kristin P. Davis
2016, Ecology (97) 2616-2627
The drivers of background tree mortality rates—the typical low rates of tree mortality found in forests in the absence of acute stresses like drought—are central to our understanding of forest dynamics, the effects of ongoing environmental changes on forests, and the causes and consequences of geographical gradients in the nature...
Remote estimation of surface pCO2 on the West Florida Shelf
Shuangling Chen, Chuanmin Hu, Robert H. Byrne, Lisa L. Robbins, Bo Yang
2016, Continental Shelf Research (128) 10-25
Surface pCO2 data from the West Florida Shelf (WFS) have been collected during 25 cruise surveys between 2003 and 2012. The data were scaled up using remote sensing measurements of surface water properties in order to provide a more nearly synoptic map of pCO2 spatial distributions and describe their temporal variations. This investigation involved...
Estimating mercury emissions resulting from wildfire in forests of the Western United States
Jackson Webster, Tyler J. Kane, Daniel Obrist, Joseph N. Ryan, George R. Aiken
2016, Science of Total Environment (568) 578-586
Understanding the emissions of mercury (Hg) from wildfires is important for quantifying the global atmospheric Hg sources. Emissions of Hg from soils resulting from wildfires in the Western United States was estimated for the 2000 to 2013 period, and the potential emission of Hg from forest soils was assessed as...
Inter-comparison of three-dimensional models of volcanic plumes
Yujiro Suzuki, Antonio Costa, Matteo Cerminara, Tomaso Esposti Ongaro, Michael Herzog, Alexa R. Van Eaton, Leif Denby
2016, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (326) 26-42
We performed an inter-comparison study of three-dimensional models of volcanic plumes. A set of common volcanological input parameters and meteorological conditions were provided for two kinds of eruptions, representing a weak and a strong eruption column. From the different models, we compared the maximum plume height, neutral buoyancy level (where...
The timing of compositionally-zoned magma reservoirs and mafic 'priming' weeks before the 1912 Novarupta-Katmai rhyolite eruption
Brad S. Singer, Fidel Costa, Jason S. Herrin, Wes Hildreth, Judith Fierstein
2016, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (451) 125-137
The June 6, 1912 eruption of more than 13 km3 of dense rock equivalent (DRE) magma at Novarupta vent, Alaska was the largest of the 20th century. It ejected >7 km3 of rhyolite, ~1.3 km3 of andesite and ~4.6 km3 of dacite. Early ideas about the origin of pyroclastic flows...
Regional land subsidence caused by the compaction of susceptible aquifer systems accompanying groundwater extraction
Devin L. Galloway, Stanley A. Leake
Vijay P. Singh, editor(s)
2016, Book chapter, Handbook of applied hydrology
Land subsidence includes both gentle downwarping and sudden sinking of segments of the land surface. Major anthropogenic causes of land subsidence are extraction of fluids including water, oil, and gas. Measurement and detec- tion of land subsidence include both ground-based and remotely sensed air- borne and space-based methods. Methods for measurement of subsidence at points...
Integrating seasonal information on nutrients and benthic algal biomass into stream water quality monitoring
Christopher P. Konrad, Mark D. Munn
2016, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (52) 1223-1237
Benthic chlorophyll a (BChl a) and environmental factors that influence algal biomass were measured monthly from February through October in 22 streams from three agricultural regions of the United States. At-site maximum BChl a ranged from 14 to 406 mg/m2 and generally varied with dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN): 8 out of...
