Application of a Weighted Regression Model for Reporting Nutrient and Sediment Concentrations, Fluxes, and Trends in Concentration and Flux for the Chesapeake Bay Nontidal Water-Quality Monitoring Network, Results Through Water Year 2012
Jeffrey G. Chanat, Douglas L. Moyer, Joel D. Blomquist, Kenneth E. Hyer, Michael J. Langland
2016, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5133
In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, estimated fluxes of nutrients and sediment from the bay’s nontidal tributaries into the estuary are the foundation of decision making to meet reductions prescribed by the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and are often the basis for refining scientific understanding of the watershed-scale...
A shift in bloater consumption in Lake Michigan between 1993 and 2011 and its effects on Diporeia and Mysis prey
Steven A. Pothoven, David B. Bunnell
2016, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (145) 59-68
Bioenergetics modeling was used to determine individual and population consumption by Bloater Coregonus hoyi in Lake Michigan during three time periods with variable Bloater density: 1993–1996 (high), 1998–2002 (intermediate), and 2009–2011 (low). Despite declines in Bloater abundance between 1993 and 2011, our results did not show any density-dependent compensatory response...
Use of terrestrial field studies in the derivation of bioaccumulation potential of chemicals
Nico W. van den Brink, Jennifer A. Arblaster, Sarah R. Bowman, Jason M. Conder, John E. Elliott, Mark S. Johnson, Derek C.G. Muir, Tiago Natal-da-Luz, Barnett A. Rattner, Bradley E. Sample, Richard F. Shore
2016, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (12) 135-145
Field-based studies are an essential component of research addressing the behavior of organic chemicals, and a unique line of evidence that can be used to assess bioaccumulation potential in chemical registration programs and aid in development of associated laboratory and modeling efforts. To aid scientific and regulatory discourse on the...
Combined effects of projected sea level rise, storm surge, and peak river flows on water levels in the Skagit Floodplain
Josheph J Hamman, Alan F. Hamlet, Roger Fuller, Eric E. Grossman
2016, Northwest Science (90) 57-78
Current understanding of the combined effects of sea level rise (SLR), storm surge, and changes in river flooding on near-coastal environments is very limited. This project uses a suite of numerical models to examine the combined effects of projected future climate change on flooding in the Skagit floodplain and estuary....
Forcing and variability of nonstationary rip currents
Joseph W. Long, H.T. Ozkan-Haller
2016, Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans (121) 520-539
Surface wave transformation and the resulting nearshore circulation along a section of coast with strong alongshore bathymetric gradients outside the surf zone are modeled for a consecutive 4 week time period. The modeled hydrodynamics are compared to in situ measurements of waves and currents collected during the Nearshore Canyon Experiment...
A semi-structured MODFLOW-USG model to evaluate local water sources to wells for decision support
Daniel T. Feinstein, Michael N. Fienen, Howard W. Reeves, Christian D. Langevin
2016, Ground Water (54) 532-544
In order to better represent the configuration of the stream network and simulate local groundwater-surface water interactions, a version of MODFLOW with refined spacing in the topmost layer was applied to a Lake Michigan Basin (LMB) regional groundwater-flow model developed by the U.S. Geological. Regional MODFLOW models commonly use coarse...
Evaluating Landsat 8 evapotranspiration for water use mapping in the Colorado River Basin
Gabriel B. Senay, MacKenzie Friedrichs, Ramesh K. Singh, Naga Manohar Velpuri
2016, Remote Sensing of Environment (185) 171-185
Evapotranspiration (ET) mapping at the Landsat spatial resolution (100 m) is essential to fully understand water use and water availability at the field scale. Water use estimates in the Colorado River Basin (CRB), which has diverse ecosystems and complex hydro-climatic regions, will be helpful to water planners and managers. Availability of...
USGS lidar science strategy—Mapping the technology to the science
Jason M. Stoker, John Brock, Christopher E. Soulard, Kernell G. Ries, Larry J. Sugarbaker, Wesley E. Newton, Patricia K. Haggerty, Kathy Lee, John A. Young
2016, Open-File Report 2015-1209
Summary The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) utilizes light detection and ranging (lidar) and enabling technologies to support many science research activities. Lidar-derived metrics and products have become a fundamental input to complex hydrologic and hydraulic models, flood inundation models, fault detection and geologic mapping, topographic and land-surface mapping, landslide and volcano...
Determination of pesticides and pesticide degradates in filtered water by direct aqueous-injection liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry
Mark W. Sandstrom, Leslie K. Kanagy, Cyrissa A. Anderson, Christopher J. Kanagy
2016, Techniques and Methods 5-B11
A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed for determination of 229 pesticides compounds (113 pesticides and 116 pesticide degradates) in filtered water samples from stream and groundwater sites. The pesticides represent a broad range of chemical classes and were selected based on criteria such as current-use intensity, probability...
A thermodynamical model for the surface tension of silicate melts in contact with H2O gas
Simone Colucci, Maurizio Battaglia, Raffaello Trigila
2016, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (175) 113-127
Surface tension plays an important role in the nucleation of H2O gas bubbles in magmatic melts and in the time-dependent rheology of bubble-bearing magmas. Despite several experimental studies, a physics based model of the surface tension of magmatic melts in contact with H2O is lacking. This paper employs gradient theory...
Water-magma interaction and plume processes in the 2008 Okmok eruption, Alaska
Joel A. Unema, Michael H. Ort, Jessica D Larsen, Christina A. Neal, Janet R. Schaefer
2016, Geological Society of America Bulletin (128) 792-806
Eruptions of similar explosivity can have divergent effects on the surroundings due to differences in the behavior of the tephra in the eruption column and atmosphere. Okmok volcano, located on Umnak Island in the eastern Aleutian Islands, erupted explosively between 12 July and 19 August 2008. The basaltic andesitic eruption...
Geostatistical analysis of tritium, groundwater age and other noble gas derived parameters in California
A. Visser, J. E. Moran, D. Hillegonds, M. Singleton, Justin T. Kulongoski, Kenneth Belitz, B. Esser
2016, Water Research (91) 314-330
Key characteristics of California groundwater systems related to aquifer vulnerability, sustainability, recharge locations and mechanisms, and anthropogenic impact on recharge are revealed in a spatial geostatistical analysis of a unique data set of tritium, noble gases and other isotopic analyses unprecedented in size at nearly 4000 samples.The correlation...
Long-term changes in sediment and nutrient delivery from Conowingo Dam to Chesapeake Bay: Effects of reservoir sedimentation
Qian Zhang, Robert M. Hirsch, William P. Ball
2016, Environmental Science & Technology (50) 1877-1886
Reduction of suspended sediment (SS), total phosphorus (TP), and total nitrogen is an important focus for Chesapeake Bay watershed management. The Susquehanna River, the bay’s largest tributary, has drawn attention because SS loads from behind Conowingo Dam (near the river’s mouth) have been rising dramatically. To better understand these changes,...
Post-disaster supply chain interdependent critical infrastructure system restoration: A review of data necessary and available for modeling
Varun Ramachandran, Suzanna K. Long, Thomas G. Shoberg, Steven Corns, Hector J. Carlo
2016, Data Science Journal (15)
The majority of restoration strategies in the wake of large-scale disasters have focused on short-term emergency response solutions. Few consider medium- to long-term restoration strategies to reconnect urban areas to national supply chain interdependent critical infrastructure systems (SCICI). These SCICI promote the effective flow of goods, services, and information vital...
Assessing models of speciation under different biogeographic scenarios; An empirical study using multi-locus and RNA-seq analyses
Taylor Edwards, Marc Tollis, PingHsun Hsieh, Ryan N. Gutenkunst, Zhen Liu, Kenro Kusumi, Melanie Culver, Robert W. Murphy
2016, Ecology and Evolution (6) 379-396
Evolutionary biology often seeks to decipher the drivers of speciation, and much debate persists over the relative importance of isolation and gene flow in the formation of new species. Genetic studies of closely related species can assess if gene flow was present during speciation, because signatures of past introgression often...
The effect of particle size distribution on the design of urban stormwater control measures
William R. Selbig, Michael N. Fienen, Judy A. Horwatich, Roger T. Bannerman
2016, Water (8)
An urban pollutant loading model was used to demonstrate how incorrect assumptions on the particle size distribution (PSD) in urban runoff can alter the design characteristics of stormwater control measures (SCMs) used to remove solids in stormwater. Field-measured PSD, although highly variable, is generally coarser than the widely-accepted PSD characterized...
Ca, Sr and Ba stable isotopes reveal the fate of soil nutrients along a tropical climosequence
Thomas D. Bullen, Oliver A. Chadwick
2016, Chemical Geology (422) 25-45
Nutrient biolifting is an important pedogenic process in which plant roots obtain inorganic nutrients such as phosphorus (P) and calcium (Ca) from minerals at depth and concentrate those nutrients at the surface. Here we use soil chemistry and stable isotopes of the alkaline earth elements Ca, strontium (Sr) and barium...
The impacts of human recreation on brown bears (Ursus arctos): A review and new management tool
Jennifer Fortin-noreus, Karyn D. Rode, Grant V. Hilderbrand, James Wilder, Sean Farley, Carole Jorgensen, Bruce G. Marcot
2016, PLoS ONE (11) 1-26
Increased popularity of recreational activities in natural areas has led to the need to better understand their impacts on wildlife. The majority of research conducted to date has focused on behavioral effects from individual recreations, thus there is a limited understanding of the potential for population-level or cumulative effects. Brown...
The scaling of geographic ranges: implications for species distribution models
Charles B. Yackulic, Joshua R. Ginsberg
2016, Landscape Ecology (31) 1195-1208
Context The geographic ranges of many species are responding to ongoing environmental change. Processes operating at different levels of biological organization, with corresponding spatial extents and grains and temporal rates, interact with the evolving configuration of environmental conditions to determine range dynamics. Objectives <p id="Par2"...
Progress on water data integration and distribution: a summary of select U.S. Geological Survey data systems
David L. Blodgett, Jessica M. Lucido, James M. Kreft
2016, Journal of Hydroinformatics (18) 226-237
Critical water-resources issues ranging from flood response to water scarcity make access to integrated water information, services, tools, and models essential. Since 1995 when the first water data web pages went online, the U.S. Geological Survey has been at the forefront of water data distribution and integration. Today, real-time and...
Beat-the-wave evacuation mapping for tsunami hazards in Seaside, Oregon, USA
George R. Priest, Laura Stimely, Nathan J. Wood, Ian Madin, Rudie Watzig
2016, Natural Hazards (80) 1031-1056
Previous pedestrian evacuation modeling for tsunamis has not considered variable wave arrival times or critical junctures (e.g., bridges), nor does it effectively communicate multiple evacuee travel speeds. We summarize an approach that identifies evacuation corridors, recognizes variable wave arrival times, and produces a map of minimum pedestrian travel speeds to...
Northern long-eared bat day-roosting and prescribed fire in the Central Appalachians, USA
W. Mark Ford, Alexander Silvis, Joshua B. Johnson, John W. Edwards, Milu Karp
2016, Fire Ecology (12) 13-17
The northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis Trovessart) is a cavity-roosting species that forages in cluttered upland and riparian forests throughout the oak-dominated Appalachian and Central Hardwoods regions. Common prior to white-nose syndrome, the population of this bat species has declined to functional extirpation in some regions in...
Predicting recreational water quality advisories: A comparison of statistical methods
Wesley R. Brooks, Steven R. Corsi, Michael N. Fienen, Rebecca B. Carvin
2016, Environmental Modelling and Software (76) 81-94
Epidemiological studies indicate that fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) in beach water are associated with illnesses among people having contact with the water. In order to mitigate public health impacts, many beaches are posted with an advisory when the concentration of FIB exceeds a beach action value. The most commonly used...
Human and bovine viruses and bacteria at three Great Lakes beaches: Environmental variable associations and health risk
Steven R. Corsi, Mark A. Borchardt, Rebecca B. Carvin, Tucker R Burch, Susan K. Spencer, Michelle A. Lutz, Colleen M. McDermott, Kimberly M. Busse, Gregory Kleinheinz, Xiaoping Feng, Jun Zhu
2016, Environmental Science & Technology (50) 987-995
Waterborne pathogens were measured at three beaches in Lake Michigan, environmental factors for predicting pathogen concentrations were identified, and the risk of swimmer infection and illness was estimated. Waterborne pathogens were detected in 96% of samples collected at three Lake Michigan beaches in summer, 2010. Samples were quantified for 22...
Observing outer planet satellites (except Titan) with the James Webb Space Telescope: Science justification and observational requirements
Laszlo P. Keszthelyi, Will Grundy, John Stansberry, Anand Sivaramakrishnan, Deepashri Thatte, Murthy Gudipati, Constantine Tsang, Alexandra Greenbaum, Chima McGruder
2016, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (128) 1-8
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will allow observations with a unique combination of spectral, spatial, and temporal resolution for the study of outer planet satellites within our Solar System. We highlight the infrared spectroscopy of icy moons and temporal changes on geologically active satellites as two particularly valuable avenues of scientific...
