Isotopic geochemistry of Panama rivers
Russell S. Harmon, Gerhard Worner, Michael J. Pribil, Zoltan Kern, Istvan Forizs, W. Berry Lyons, Christopher B. Gardner, Steven T. Goldsmith
2015, Procedia Earth and Planetary Science (13) 108-111
River water samples collected from 78 watersheds rivers along a 500-km transect across a Late Cretaceous-Tertiary andesitic volcanic arc terrane in west-central Panama provide a synoptic overview of riverine geochemistry, chemical denudation, and CO2 consumption in the tropics. D/H and 18O/16O relationships indicate that bedrock dissolution of andesitic arc crust...
Ground-based thermal imaging of stream surface temperatures: Technique and evaluation
Scott A. Bonar, Sally J. Petre
2015, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (35) 1209-1218
We evaluated a ground-based handheld thermal imaging system for measuring water temperatures using data from eight southwestern USA streams and rivers. We found handheld thermal imagers could provide considerably more spatial information on water temperature (for our unit one image = 19,600 individual temperature measurements) than traditional methods could supply...
Net ecosystem production and organic carbon balance of U.S. East Coast estuaries: A synthesis approach
Maria Herrmann, Raymond G. Najjar, W. Michael Kemp, Richard B. Alexander, Elizabeth W. Boyer, Wei-Jun Cai, Peter C. Griffith, Kevin D. Kroeger, S. Leigh McCallister, Richard A. Smith
2015, Global Biogeochemical Cycles (29) 96-111
Net ecosystem production (NEP) and the overall organic carbon budget for the estuaries along the East Coast of the United States are estimated. We focus on the open estuarine waters, excluding the fringing wetlands. We developed empirical models relating NEP to loading ratios of dissolved inorganic nitrogen to total organic...
Duckling survival, fecundity, and habitat selection of mottled duck broods on the upper Texas Gulf Coast
Elizabeth A. Rigby, David A. Haukos
2015, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (2) 156-163
Mottled ducks (Anas fulvigula) on the western Gulf Coast have exhibited a steep population decline since the mid 1990s. Low rates of breeding incidence and nest success have been implicated in this decline, but duckling survival and the habitat needs of broods have not been previously investigated in this region....
Identifying sediment sources in the sediment TMDL process
Allen C. Gellis, Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Joseph P. Schubauer-Berigan, R.B. Landy, Lillian E. Gorman Sanisaca
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 3rd Joint Federal Interagency Conference (10th Federal Interagency Sedimentation Conference and 5th Federal Interagency Hydrologic Modeling Conference)
Sediment is an important pollutant contributing to aquatic-habitat degradation in many waterways of the United States. This paper discusses the application of sediment budgets in conjunction with sediment fingerprinting as tools to determine the sources of sediment in impaired waterways. These approaches complement monitoring, assessment, and modeling of sediment erosion,...
Fishes of the Blackwater River Drainage, Tucker County, West Virginia
Daniel A. Cincotta, Stuart A. Welsh, Douglas P. Wegman, Thomas E. Oldham, Lara B. Hedrick
2015, Southeastern Naturalist (14) 297-313
The Blackwater River, a tributary of the upper Cheat River of the Monongahela River, hosts a modest fish fauna. This relatively low diversity of fish species is partly explained by its drainage history. The Blackwater was once part of the prehistoric, northeasterly flowing St. Lawrence River. During the Pleistocene Epoch,...
Correspondence of biological condition models of California streams at statewide and regional scales
Jason T. May, Larry R. Brown, Andrew C. Rehn, Ian R. Waite, Peter R Ode, Raphael D Mazor, Kenneth C Schiff
2015, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (187)
We used boosted regression trees (BRT) to model stream biological condition as measured by benthic macroinvertebrate taxonomic completeness, the ratio of observed to expected (O/E) taxa. Models were developed with and without exclusion of rare taxa at a site. BRT models are robust, requiring few assumptions compared with traditional modeling...
A methodology for quantifying and mapping ecosystem services provided by watersheds
Amy M. Villamagna, Paul L. Angermeier
2015, Book chapter, Ecosystem services and river basin ecohydrology
Watershed processes – physical, chemical, and biological – are the foundation for many benefits that ecosystems provide for human societies. A crucial step toward accurately representing those benefits, so they can ultimately inform decisions about land and water management, is the development of a coherent methodology that can translate available...
On-line hydrogen-isotope measurements of organic samples using elemental chromium: An extension for high temperature elemental-analyzer techniques
Matthias Gehre, Julian Renpenning, Tetyana Gilevska, Haiping Qi, Tyler B. Coplen, Harro A.J. Meijer, Willi A. Brand, Arndt Schimmelmann
2015, Analytical Chemistry (87) 5198-5205
The high temperature conversion (HTC) technique using an elemental analyzer with a glassy carbon tube and filling (temperature conversion/elemental analysis, TC/EA) is a widely used method for hydrogen isotopic analysis of water and many solid and liquid organic samples with analysis by isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). However, the TC/EA IRMS...
Vegetation composition, nutrient, and sediment dynamics along a floodplain landscape
Nancy B. Rybicki, Gregory E. Noe, Cliff R. Hupp, Myles Robinson
2015, River Systems (21) 109-123
Forested floodplains are important landscape features for retaining river nutrients and sediment loads but there is uncertainty in how vegetation influences nutrient and sediment retention. In order to understand the role of vegetation in nutrient and sediment trapping, we quantified species composition and the uptake of nutrients in plant material...
Copper toxicity and organic matter: Resiliency of watersheds in the Duluth Complex, Minnesota, USA
Nadine M. Piatak, Robert R. Seal, Perry M. Jones, Laurel G. Woodruff
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage and IMWA Annual Conference
We estimated copper (Cu) toxicity in surface water with high dissolved organic matter (DOM) for unmined mineralized watersheds of the Duluth Complex using the Biotic Ligand Model (BLM), which evaluates the effect of DOM, cation competition for biologic binding sites, and metal speciation. A sediment-based BLM was used to estimate...
Climate change in the Northeast and Midwest United States
Alexander Bryan, Ambarish Karmalkar, Ethan Coffel, Liang Ning, Radley M. Horton, Eleonora Demaria, Fanxing Fan, Raymond S. Bradley, Richard Palmer
2015, Report, Integrating climate change into northeast and midwest State Wildlife Action Plans
The climate is changing rapidly in ways that have already impacted wildlife and their habitats. Here, we present a summary of the observed past and projected future climate changes in the region that are relevant to wildlife and ecosystems, as well as what we know and don’t know in order...
Oxic to anoxic transition in bottom waters during formation of the Citronen Fjord sediment-hosted Zn-Pb deposit, North Greenland
John F. Slack, Diogo Rosa, Hendrik Falck
2015, Conference Paper, 13th Biennial Meeting of the Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits
Bulk geochemical data acquired for host sedimentary rocks to the Late Ordovician Citronen Fjord sediment-hosted Zn-Pb deposit in North Greenland constrain the redox state of bottom waters prior to and during sulphide mineralization. Downhole profiles for one drill core show trends for redox proxies (MnO, Mo, Ce anomalies) that suggest...
Origins and bioavailability of dissolved organic matter in groundwater
Yuan Shen, Francis H. Chapelle, Eric W. Strom, Ronald Benner
2015, Biogeochemistry (122) 61-78
Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in groundwater influences water quality and fuels microbial metabolism, but its origins, bioavailability and chemical composition are poorly understood. The origins and concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and bioavailable DOM were monitored during a long-term (2-year) study of groundwater in a fractured-rock aquifer in the...
Mineral potential tracts for orogenic, Carlin-like, and epithermal gold deposits in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, (phase V, deliverable 69)
Richard J. Goldfarb, Erin E. Marsh, Eric D. Anderson, John D. Horton, Carol A. Finn, Georges Beaudoin
2015, Open-File Report 2013-1280-H
The gold resources of Mauritania presently include two important deposits and a series of poorly studied prospects. The Tasiast belt of deposits, which came into production in 2007, is located in the southwestern corner of the Rgueïbat Shield and defines a world-class Paleoproterozoic(?) orogenic gold ore system. The producing Guelb...
Application and utility of a low-cost unmanned aerial system to manage and conserve aquatic resources in four Texas rivers
Timothy W. Birdsong, Megan Bean, Timothy B. Grabowski, Thomas B. Hardy, Thomas Heard, Derrick Holdstock, Kristy Kollaus, Stephan J. Magnelia, Kristina Tolman
2015, Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (2015) 80-85
Low-cost unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have recently gained increasing attention in natural resources management due to their versatility and demonstrated utility in collection of high-resolution, temporally-specific geospatial data. This study applied low-cost UAS to support the geospatial data needs of aquatic resources management projects in four Texas rivers. Specifically,...
Bioenergetics modeling of percid fishes
Charles P. Madenjian
Patrick Kestemont, Konrad Dabrowski, Robert C. Summerfelt, editor(s)
2015, Book chapter, Biology and culture of percid fishes
A bioenergetics model for a percid fish represents a quantitative description of the fish’s energy budget. Bioenergetics modeling can be used to identify the important factors determining growth of percids in lakes, rivers, or seas. For example, bioenergetics modeling applied to yellow perch (Perca flavescens) in the western...
Quality assurance testing of acoustic doppler current profiler transform matrices
Brandy Armstrong, Janice M. Fulford, Kirk G. Thibodeaux
2015, Conference Paper, 2015 IEEE/OES Eleveth Current, Waves and Turbulence Measurement (CWTM)
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility (HIF) is nationally responsible for the design, testing, evaluation, repair, calibration, warehousing, and distribution of hydrologic instrumentation in use within the USGS Water Mission Area (WMA). The HIF's Hydraulic Laboratory has begun routine quality assurance (QA) testing and documenting the performance of...
Cambrian–Ordovician of the central Appalachians:Correlations and event stratigraphy of carbonate platform andadjacent deep-water deposits
David K. Brezinski, John F. Taylor, John E. Repetski, James D. Loch
2015, Book chapter, Geological Society of America field guide
This trip seeks to illustrate the succession of Cambrian and Ordovician facies deposited within the Pennsylvania and Maryland portion of the Great American Carbonate Bank. From the Early Cambrian (Dyeran) through Late Ordovician (Turinan), the Laurentian paleocontinent was rimmed by an extensive carbonate platform. During this protracted period of time, a...
Distributional patterns of arsenic concentrations in contaminant plumes offer clues to the source of arsenic in groundwater at landfills
Philip T. Harte
2015, Remediation Journal (24) 69-75
The distributional pattern of dissolved arsenic concentrations from landfill plumes can provide clues to the source of arsenic contamination. Under simple idealized conditions, arsenic concentrations along flow paths in aquifers proximal to a landfill will decrease under anthropogenic sources but potentially increase under in situ sources. This paper presents several...
Cenozoic stratigraphy and structure of the Chesapeake Bay region
David S. Powars, Lucy E. Edwards, Susan M. Kidwell, J. Stephen Schindler
2015, Book
The Salisbury embayment is a broad tectonic downwarp that is filled by generally seaward-thickening, wedge-shaped deposits of the central Atlantic Coastal Plain. Our two-day field trip will take us to the western side of this embayment from the Fall Zone in Washington, D.C., to some of the bluffs along Aquia...
Land use structures fish assemblages in reservoirs of the Tennessee River
Leandro E. Miranda, J. M. Bies, D. A. Hann
2015, Marine and Freshwater Research (66) 526-534
Inputs of nutrients, sediments and detritus from catchments can promote selected components of reservoir fish assemblages, while hindering others. However, investigations linking these catchment subsidies to fish assemblages have generally focussed on one or a handful of species. Considering this paucity of community-level awareness, we sought to explore the association...
North Cascades National Park Service Complex
Robert Hoffman, Andrea Woodward, Patricia K. Haggerty, Kurt J. Jenkins, Paul C. Griffin, M. J. Adams, Joan Hagar, Tonnie Cummings, Dan Duriscoe, Karen Kopper, Jon Riedel, Lelaina Marin, Guillaume S. Mauger, Karen Bumbaco, Jeremy S. Littell
2015, Report
Natural Resource Condition Assessments (NRCAs) evaluate current conditions for a subset of natural resources and resource indicators in national parks. NRCAs also report on trends in resource condition (when possible), identify critical data gaps, and characterize a general level of confidence for study findings. The resources and indicators emphasized in...
Characterization of stormwater runoff from bridges in North Carolina and the effects of bridge runoff on receiving streams
Chad Wagner, Sharon Fitzgerald, Matthew Lauffer
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Ecology & Transportation
The presentation will provide an overview of a collaborative study between USGS, NC Department of Transportation and URS Corporation to characterize stormwater runoff from bridges in North Carolina and the effects of bridge runoff on receiving streams. This investigation measured bridge deck runoff from 15 bridges for 12-15 storms, stream...
Status of the Topeka shiner in west-central Iowa
Clay Pierce, Bryan D. Bakevich, Michael C. Quist
2015, American Midland Naturalist (174) 350-358
The Topeka shiner Notropis topeka is a federally endangered fish species that is estimated to occupy only 20% of its historic range. In Iowa Topeka shiners have been in decline for decades. Our goal was to determine the present distribution of Topeka shiners in the west-central portion of their range in Iowa...
