Control of nitrogen and phosphorus transport by reservoirs in agricultural landscapes
Stephen M. Powers, Jennifer L. Tank, Dale M. Robertson
2015, Biogeochemistry (124) 417-439
Reservoirs often receive excess nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) lost from agricultural land, and may subsequently influence N and P delivery to inland and coastal waters through internal processes such as nutrient burial, denitrification, and nutrient turnover. Currently there is a need to better understand how reservoirs affect nutrient transport...
Hydrologic data from wells at or in the vicinity of the San Juan coal mine, San Juan County, New Mexico
Anne M. Stewart, Nicole Thomas
2015, Data Series 933
In 2010, in cooperation with the Mining and Minerals Division (MMD) of the State of New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) initiated a 4-year assessment of hydrologic conditions at the San Juan coal mine (SJCM), located about 14 miles west-northwest of the city...
Detecting the influence of rare stressors on rare species in Yosemite National Park using a novel stratified permutation test
John R. Matchett, Philip B. Stark, Steven M. Ostoja, Roland A. Knapp, Heather C. McKenny, Matthew L. Brooks, William T. Langford, Lucas N. Joppa, Eric L. Berlow
2015, Scientific Reports (5)
Statistical models often use observational data to predict phenomena; however, interpreting model terms to understand their influence can be problematic. This issue poses a challenge in species conservation where setting priorities requires estimating influences of potential stressors using observational data. We present a novel approach for inferring influence of a...
Real-time, continuous water-quality monitoring in Indiana and Kentucky
Megan E. Shoda, Timothy R. Lathrop, Martin R. Risch
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3041
Water-quality “super” gages (also known as “sentry” gages) provide real-time, continuous measurements of the physical and chemical characteristics of stream water at or near selected U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamgages in Indiana and Kentucky. A super gage includes streamflow and water-quality instrumentation and representative stream sample collection for laboratory analysis....
Dynamic rupture models of earthquakes on the Bartlett Springs Fault, Northern California
Julian C. Lozos, Ruth A. Harris, Jessica R. Murray, James J. Lienkaemper
2015, Geophysical Research Letters (42) 4343-4349
The Bartlett Springs Fault (BSF), the easternmost branch of the northern San Andreas Fault system, creeps along much of its length. Geodetic data for the BSF are sparse, and surface creep rates are generally poorly constrained. The two existing geodetic slip rate inversions resolve at least one locked patch within...
Effects of ungulate disturbance and weather variation on Pediocactus winkleri: Insights from long-term monitoring
Deborah J. Clark, Thomas O. Clark, Michael C. Duniway, Cody B. Flagg
2015, Western North American Naturalist (75) 88-101
Population dynamics and effects of large ungulate disturbances on Winkler cactus (Pediocactus winkleri K.D. Heil) were documented annually over a 20-year time span at one plot within Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. This cactus species was federally listed as threatened in 1998. The study began in 1995 to gain a better...
Assessment of unconvential (tight) gas resources in Upper Cook Inlet Basin, South-central Alaska
Christopher J. Schenk, Philip H. Nelson, Timothy R. Klett, Phuong A. Le, Christopher P. Anderson
2015, Data Series 69-AA
A geologic model was developed for the assessment of potential Mesozoic tight-gas resources in the deep, central part of upper Cook Inlet Basin, south-central Alaska. The basic premise of the geologic model is that organic-bearing marine shales of the Middle Jurassic Tuxedni Group achieved adequate thermal maturity for oil and...
SHRIMP U–Pb and REE data pertaining to the origins of xenotime in Belt Supergroup rocks: evidence for ages of deposition, hydrothermal alteration, and metamorphism
John N. Aleinikoff, Karen Lund, C. Mark Fanning
2015, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (52) 722-745
The Belt–Purcell Supergroup, northern Idaho, western Montana, and southern British Columbia, is a thick succession of Mesoproterozoic sedimentary rocks with an age range of about 1470–1400 Ma. Stratigraphic layers within several sedimentary units were sampled to apply the new technique of U–Pb dating of xenotime that sometimes forms as rims...
The U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Collections Management System (GCMS)—A master catalog and collections management plan for U.S. Geological Survey geologic samples and sample collections
Geologic Materials Repository Working Group
2015, Circular 1410
**Updated guidance is available in USGS Instructional Memorandum CSS 2019-01.**AbstractThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is widely recognized in the earth science community as possessing extensive collections of earth materials collected by research personnel over the course of its history. In 2006, a Geologic Collections Inventory was...
Flood recovery maps for the White River in Bethel, Stockbridge, and Rochester, Vermont, and the Tweed River in Stockbridge and Pittsfield, Vermont, 2014
Scott A. Olson
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5056
From August 28 to 29, 2011, Tropical Storm Irene delivered rainfall ranging from about 4 inches to more than 7 inches in the White River Basin. The rainfall resulted in severe flooding throughout the basin and significant damage along the White River and Tweed River. In response to the flooding,...
Streamflow, water quality, and constituent loads and yields, Scituate Reservoir drainage area, Rhode Island, water year 2013
Kirk P. Smith
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1082
Streamflow and concentrations of sodium and chloride estimated from records of specific conductance were used to calculate loads of sodium and chloride during water year (WY) 2013 (October 1, 2012, through September 30, 2013) for tributaries to the Scituate Reservoir, Rhode Island. Streamflow and water-quality data used in the study...
Southern Salish Sea Habitat Map Series: Admiralty Inlet
Guy R. Cochrane, Megan N. Dethier, Timothy O. Hodson, Kristine K. Kull, Nadine E. Golden, Andrew C. Ritchie, Crescent Moegling, Robert E. Pacunski
Guy R. Cochrane, editor(s)
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1073
In 2010 the Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10 initiated the Puget Sound Scientific Studies and Technical Investigations Assistance Program, designed to support research in support of implementing the Puget Sound Action Agenda. The Action Agenda was created in response to Puget Sound having been designated as one of 28 estuaries...
Southern Salish Sea Habitat Map Series data catalog
2015, Data Series 935
In 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10 initiated the Puget Sound Scientific Studies and Technical Investigations Assistance Program, which was designed to support research for implementing the Puget Sound Action Agenda. The Action Agenda was created because Puget Sound was designated as one of 28 estuaries of National...
A plan for the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat)
Susan C. Loeb, Thomas J. Rodhouse, Laura E. Ellison, Cori L. Lausen, Jonathan D. Reichard, Kathryn M. Irvine, Thomas E. Ingersoll, Jeremy T. H. Coleman, Wayne E. Thogmartin, John R. Sauer, Charles M. Francis, Mylea L. Bayless, Thomas R. Stanley, Douglas H. Johnson
2015, Report
The purpose of the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) is to create a continent-wide program to monitor bats at local to rangewide scales that will provide reliable data to promote effective conservation decisionmaking and the long-term viability of bat populations across the continent. This is an international, multiagency program....
Lunar periodicity in the shell flux of planktonic foraminifera in the Gulf of Mexico
Lukas Jonkers, Caitlin E. Reynolds, Julie N. Richey, Ian R. Hall
2015, Biogeosciences (12) 3061-3070
Synchronised reproduction offers clear benefits to planktonic foraminifera – an important group of marine calcifiers – as it increases the chances of successful gamete fusion. Such synchrony requires tuning to an internal or external clock. Evidence exists for lunar reproductive cycles in some species, but its recognition in shell flux...
Evaluating potential overlap between pack stock and Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis sierrae) in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, California
Robert C. Klinger, Alexandra P. Few, Kathleen A. Knox, Brian E. Hatfield, Jonathan Clark, David W. German, Thomas R. Stephenson
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1102
Pack stock (horses, mules, burros, llamas, and goats) are frequently assumed to have negative effects on public lands, but there is a general lack of data to be able to quantify the degree to which this is actually the case. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks have received complaints that...
Potential impact of Chironomus plumosus larvae on hypolimnetic oxygen in the central basin of Lake Erie
Frederick M. Soster, Gerald Matisoff, Donald W. Schloesser, William J. Edwards
2015, Journal of Great Lakes Research (41) 348-357
Previous studies have indicated that burrow-irrigating infauna can increase sediment oxygen demand (SOD) and impact hypolimnetic oxygen in stratified lakes. We conducted laboratory microcosm experiments and computer simulations with larvae of the burrowing benthic midge Chironomus plumosus to quantify burrow oxygen uptake rates and subsequent contribution to sediment oxygen demand...
Coupling geophysical investigation with hydrothermal modeling to constrain the enthalpy classification of a potential geothermal resource.
Jeremy T. White, Arkadi Karakhanian, Chuck Connor, Laura Connor, Joseph D. Hughes, Rocco Malservisi, Paul Wetmore
2015, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (298) 59-70
An appreciable challenge in volcanology and geothermal resource development is to understand the relationships between volcanic systems and low-enthalpy geothermal resources. The enthalpy of an undeveloped geothermal resource in the Karckar region of Armenia is investigated by coupling geophysical and hydrothermal modeling. The results of 3-dimensional inversion of gravity data...
Modeling and management of pit lake water chemistry 2: Case studies
D.N. Castendyk, Laurie S. Balistrieri, C.H. Gammons, N. Tucci
2015, Applied Geochemistry (57) 289-307
Pit lakes, a common product of open pit mining techniques, may become long-term, post-mining environmental risks or long-term, post-mining water resources depending upon management decisions. This study reviews two published pit lake modeling studies and one pit lake monitoring program in...
The role of the geophysical template and environmental regimes in controlling stream-living trout populations
Brooke E. Penaluna, Steve F. Railsback, Jason B. Dunham, S. Johnson, Richard E. Bilby, Arne E. Skaugset
2015, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (72) 893-901
The importance of multiple processes and instream factors to aquatic biota has been explored extensively, but questions remain about how local spatiotemporal variability of aquatic biota is tied to environmental regimes and the geophysical template of streams. We used an individual-based trout model to explore the relative role of the...
Synthesis on Quaternary aeolian research in the unglaciated eastern United States
Helaine W. Markewich, Ronald J. Litwin, Douglas A. Wysocki, Milan J. Pavich
2015, Aeolian Research (17) 139-191
Late-middle and late Pleistocene, and Holocene, inland aeolian sand and loess blanket >90,000 km2 of the unglaciated eastern United States of America (USA). Deposits are most extensive in the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV) and Atlantic Coastal Plain (ACP), areas presently lacking significant aeolian activity. They provide evidence of paleoclimate intervals when wind...
The leading mode of observed and CMIP5 ENSO-residual sea surface temperatures and associated changes in Indo-Pacific climate
Christopher C. Funk, Hoell. Andrew
2015, Journal of Climate (28) 4309-4329
SSTs in the western Pacific Ocean have tracked closely with CMIP5 simulations despite recent hiatus cooling in the eastern Pacific. This paper quantifies these similarities and associated circulation and precipitation variations using the first global 1900–2012 ENSO-residual empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) of 35 variables: observed SSTs; 28 CMIP5 SST simulations;...
Performance metrics and variance partitioning reveal sources of uncertainty in species distribution models
James I. Watling, Laura A. Brandt, David N. Bucklin, Ikuko Fujisaki, Frank J. Mazzotti, Stephanie S. Romanach, Carolina Speroterra
2015, Ecological Modelling (309-310) 48-59
Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used in basic and applied ecology, making it important to understand sources and magnitudes of uncertainty in SDM performance and predictions. We analyzed SDM performance and partitioned variance among prediction maps for 15 rare vertebrate species in the southeastern USA using all possible combinations...
Predicting alpine headwater stream intermittency: a case study in the northern Rocky Mountains
Roy Sando, Kyle W. Blasch
2015, Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology (15) 68-80
This investigation used climatic, geological, and environmental data coupled with observational stream intermittency data to predict alpine headwater stream intermittency. Prediction was made using a random forest classification model. Results showed that the most important variables in the prediction model were snowpack persistence, represented by average snow extent from March...
High-frequency, long-duration water sampling in acid mine drainage studies: a short review of current methods and recent advances in automated water samplers
Thomas Chapin
2015, Applied Geochemistry (59) 118-124
Hand-collected grab samples are the most common water sampling method but using grab sampling to monitor temporally variable aquatic processes such as diel metal cycling or episodic events is rarely feasible or cost-effective. Currently available automated samplers are a proven, widely used technology and typically collect up to 24 samples...
