A chronicle of a killer alga in the west: Ecology, assessment, and management of Prymnesium parvum blooms
D. L. Roelke, Aaron Barkoh, Bryan W. Brooks, J. P. Grover, K. D. Hambright, John W. LaClaire II, Peter D. R. Moeller, Reynaldo Patino
2015, Hydrobiologia (764) 29-50
Since the mid-1980s, fish-killing blooms of Prymnesium parvum spread throughout the USA. In the south central USA, P. parvum blooms have commonly spanned hundreds of kilometers. There is much evidence that physiological stress brought on by inorganic nutrient limitation enhances toxicity. Other factors influence toxin production as well, such as...
Intercontinental spread of asian-origin H5N8 to North America through Beringia by migratory birds
Dong-Hun Lee, Mia Kim Torchetti, Kevin Winker, S. Ip, David E. Swayne, Chang-Seon Song
2015, Journal of Virology (89) 6521-6524
Phylogenetic network analysis and understanding of waterfowl migration patterns suggest the Eurasian H5N8 clade 2.3.4.4 avian influenza virus emerged in late 2013 in China, spread in early 2014 to South Korea and Japan, and reached Siberia and Beringia by summer 2014 via migratory birds. Three genetically distinct subgroups emerged and...
The dynamics of avian influenza in western Arctic snow geese: implications for annual and migratory infection patterns
Michael D. Samuel, Jeffrey S. Hall, Justin D. Brown, Diana R. Goldberg, S. Ip, Vasily V. Baranyuk
2015, Ecological Applications (25) 1851-1859
Wild water birds are the natural reservoir for low-pathogenic avian influenza viruses (AIV). However, our ability to investigate the epizootiology of AIV in these migratory populations is challenging, and despite intensive worldwide surveillance, remains poorly understood. We conducted a cross-sectional, retrospective analysis in Pacific Flyway lesser snow geese Chen caerulescens...
Hydrogeologic framework, hydrology, and refined conceptual model of groundwater flow for Coastal Plain aquifers at the Standard Chlorine of Delaware, Inc. Superfund Site, New Castle County, Delaware, 2005-12
Michael J. Brayton, Roberto M. Cruz, Luke Myers, James R. Degnan, Jeff P. Raffensperger
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5224
From 1966 to 2002, activities at the Standard Chlorine of Delaware chemical facility in New Castle County, Delaware resulted in the contamination of groundwater, soils, and wetland sediment. In 2005, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 3, and the Delaware Department of...
Hydrologic effects of potential changes in climate, water use, and land cover in the Upper Scioto River Basin, Ohio
Andrew D. Ebner, G. F. Koltun, Chad J. Ostheimer
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5024
This report presents the results of a study to provide information on the hydrologic effects of potential 21st-century changes in climate, water use, and land cover in the Upper Scioto River Basin, Ohio (from Circleville, Ohio, to the headwaters). A precipitation-runoff model, calibrated on the basis of historical climate and...
Landscape prediction and mapping of game fish biomass, an ecosystem service of Michigan rivers
Peter C. Esselman, R. Jan Stevenson, Frank Lupi, Catherine M. Riseng, Michael J. Wiley
2015, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (35) 302-320
The increased integration of ecosystem service concepts into natural resource management places renewed emphasis on prediction and mapping of fish biomass as a major provisioning service of rivers. The goals of this study were to predict and map patterns of fish biomass as a proxy for the availability of catchable...
Water quality in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, drinking-water source area, 2005-8
Kirk P. Smith, Marcus C. Waldron
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3030
During 2005-8, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Cambridge, Massachusetts, Water Department, measured concentrations of sodium and chloride, plant nutrients, commonly used pesticides, and caffeine in base-flow and stormwater samples collected from 11 tributaries in the Cambridge drinking-water source area. These data were used to characterize current water-quality...
RRAWFLOW: Rainfall-Response Aquifer and Watershed Flow Model (v1.15)
Andrew J. Long
2015, Geoscientific Model Development (8) 865-880
The Rainfall-Response Aquifer and Watershed Flow Model (RRAWFLOW) is a lumped-parameter model that simulates streamflow, spring flow, groundwater level, or solute transport for a measurement point in response to a system input of precipitation, recharge, or solute injection. I introduce the first version of RRAWFLOW available for download and public...
Physical subdivision and description of the water-bearing sediments of the Santa Clara Valley, California
Carl M. Wentworth, Robert C. Jachens, Robert A. Williams, John C. Tinsley III, Randall T. Hanson
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5017
A thick Quaternary alluvial section fills a sedimentary basin beneath the Santa Clara Valley, California, located within the San Andreas Fault system at the south end of San Francisco Bay. This section consists of an upper sequence about 1,000 feet thick containing eight sedimentary cycles and a lower fine-grained unit...
Potential groundwater recharge for the State of Minnesota using the Soil-Water-Balance model, 1996-2010
Erik A. Smith, Stephen M. Westenbroek
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5038
Groundwater recharge is one of the most difficult components of a water budget to ascertain, yet is an important boundary condition necessary for the quantification of water resources. In Minnesota, improved estimates of recharge are necessary because approximately 75 percent of drinking water and 90 percent of agricultural irrigation water...
Occurrence of pesticides in groundwater underlying areas of high-density row-crop production in Alabama, 2009-2013
Heather L. Welch
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5014
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, sampled a network of 15 wells for up to 167 pesticides and pesticide degradates from 2009 through 2013 in three areas of high-density row-crop agriculture in Alabama. Eighteen herbicides, 2 fungicides, and 9 degradates were detected...
Using satellite images to monitor glacial-lake outburst floods: Lago Cachet Dos drainage, Chile
Beverly A. Friesen, Christopher J. Cole, David A. Nimick, Earl M. Wilson, Mark J. Fahey, Daniel J. McGrath, Jonathan Leidich
2015, Scientific Investigations Map 3322
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is monitoring and analyzing glacial-lake outburst floods (GLOFs) in the Colonia valley in the Patagonia region of southern Chile. A GLOF is a type of flood that occurs when water impounded by a glacier or a glacial moraine is released catastrophically. In the Colonia valley,...
National assessment of geologic carbon dioxide storage resources: allocations of assessed areas to Federal lands
Marc L. Buursink, Steven M. Cahan, Peter D. Warwick
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5021
Following the geologic basin-scale assessment of technically accessible carbon dioxide storage resources in onshore areas and State waters of the United States, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that an area of about 130 million acres (or about 200,000 square miles) of Federal lands overlies these storage resources. Consequently, about 18...
Conceptual models of the formation of acid-rock drainage at road cuts in Tennessee
Mike Bradley, Scott Worland, Tom Byl
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 2015 Tennessee Water Resources Symposium
Pyrite and other minerals containing sulfur and trace metals occur in several rock formations throughout Middle and East Tennessee. Pyrite (FeS2) weathers in the presence of oxygen and water to form iron hydroxides and sulfuric acid. The weathering and interaction of the acid on the rocks and other minerals at...
Multilevel groundwater monitoring of hydraulic head and temperature in the eastern Snake River Plain aquifer, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho, 2011-13
Brian V. Twining, Jason C. Fisher
2015, Scientific Investigations Report 2015-5042
From 2011 to 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Project Office, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, collected depth-discrete measurements of fluid pressure and temperature in 11 boreholes located in the eastern Snake River Plain aquifer. Each borehole was instrumented with a multilevel monitoring system...
An evaluation of the accuracy of modeled and computed streamflow time-series data for the Ohio River at Hannibal Lock and Dam and at a location upstream from Sardis, Ohio
G. F. Koltun
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1058
Between July 2013 and June 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) made 10 streamflow measurements on the Ohio River about 1.5 miles (mi) downstream from the Hannibal Lock and Dam (near Hannibal, Ohio) and 11 streamflow measurements near the USGS Sardis gage (station number 03114306) located approximately 2.4 mi upstream...
Do management actions to restore rare habitat benefit native fish conservation? Distribution of juvenile native fish among shoreline habitats of the Colorado River
Michael J. Dodrill, Charles B. Yackulic, Brandon Gerig, William E. Pine III, Josh Korman, Colton Finch
2015, River Research and Applications (31) 1203-1217
Many management actions in aquatic ecosystems are directed at restoring or improving specific habitats to benefit fish populations. In the Grand Canyon reach of the Colorado River, experimental flow operations as part of the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program have been designed to restore sandbars and associated backwater habitats....
The Pacific northwest stream quality assessment
Peter C. Van Metre, Jennifer L. Morace, Rich W. Sheibley
2015, Fact Sheet 2015-3020
In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program is assessing stream quality in the Pacific Northwest. The goals of the Pacific Northwest Stream Quality Assessment (Pacific Northwest study) are to assess the quality of streams in the region by characterizing multiple water-quality factors that are stressors...
A method for determining average beach slope and beach slope variability for U.S. sandy coastlines
Kara S. Doran, Joseph W. Long, Jacquelyn R. Overbeck
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1053
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Assessment of Hurricane-Induced Coastal Erosion Hazards compares measurements of beach morphology with storm-induced total water levels to produce forecasts of coastal change for storms impacting the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coastlines of the United States. The wave-induced water level component (wave setup and...
Managing habitat to slow or reverse population declines of the Columbia spotted frog in the Northern Great Basin
David S. Pilliod, Richard D. Scherer
2015, Journal of Wildlife Management (79) 579-590
Evaluating the effectiveness of habitat management actions is critical to adaptive management strategies for conservation of imperiled species. We quantified the response of a Great Basin population of the Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) to multiple habitat improvement actions aimed to reduce threats and reverse population declines. We used mark-recapture...
Targeting climate diversity in conservation planning to build resilience to climate change
Nicole E. Heller, Jason R. Kreitler, David Ackerly, Stuart Weiss, Amanda Recinos, Ryan Branciforte, Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L. Flint, Elisabeth Micheli
2015, Ecosphere (6) 1-20
Climate change is raising challenging concerns for systematic conservation planning. Are methods based on the current spatial patterns of biodiversity effective given long-term climate change? Some conservation scientists argue that planning should focus on protecting the abiotic diversity in the landscape, which drives patterns of biological diversity, rather than focusing...
Soil respiration patterns and controls in limestone cedar glades
Jennifer M. Cartwright, Dafeng Hui
2015, Plant and Soil (389) 157-169
Aims Drivers of soil respiration (Rs) in rock outcrop ecosystems remain poorly understood. We investigated these drivers in limestone cedar glades, known for their concentrations of endemic plant species and for seasonal hydrologic extremes (xeric and saturated conditions), and compared our findings to those in temperate grasslands and semi-arid ecosystems. Methods We measured...
Terrestrial ecology of semi-aquatic giant gartersnakes (Thamnophis gigas)
Brian J. Halstead, Shannon M. Skalos, Glenn D. Wylie, Michael L. Casazza
2015, Herpetological Conservation and Biology (10) 633-644
Wetlands are a vital component of habitat for semiaquatic herpetofauna, but for most species adjacent terrestrial habitats are also essential. We examined the use of terrestrial environments by Giant Gartersnakes (Thamnophis gigas) to provide behavioral information relevant to conservation of this state and federally listed threatened species. We used radio...
Hydrologic conditions in Massachusetts during water year 2014
Richard J. Verdi
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1056
Hydrologic data and conditions throughout Massachusetts during water year 2014 (October 1, 2013, to September 30, 2014) are presented in this report. Stream discharge and groundwater levels during water year 2014 varied geographically across the State. The data are described as being above, below, or near normal in relation to...
Evaluation of the Ott Hydromet Qliner for measuring discharge in laboratory and field conditions
Jason C. McVay
2015, Open-File Report 2015-1052
The U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with the University of Iowa IIHR – Hydroscience and Engineering, evaluated the use of the Ott Hydromet Qliner using laboratory flume tests along with field validation tests. Analysis of the flume testing indicates the velocities measured by the Qliner at a 40-second exposure time...
