Characterizing and simulating sediment loads and transport in the lower part of the San Antonio River Basin
J. Ryan Banta, Darwin J. Ockerman, Cassi Crow, Stephen P. Opsahl
2015, Conference Paper
This extended abstract is based on the U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Reports by Crow et al. (2013) and Banta and Ockerman (2014). Suspended sediment in rivers and streams can play an important role in ecological health of rivers and estuaries and consequently is an important issue for water-resource managers....
Surrogate analysis and index developer (SAID) tool and real-time data dissemination utilities
Marian M. Domanski, Timothy D. Straub, Molly S. Wood, Mark N. Landers, Gary R. Wall, Steven J. Brady
2015, Conference Paper
The use of acoustic and other parameters as surrogates for suspended-sediment concentrations (SSC) in rivers has been successful in multiple applications across the Nation. Critical to advancing the operational use of surrogates are tools to process and evaluate the data along with the subsequent development of regression models from which...
Geomorphic change in the Limitrophe reach of the Colorado River in response to the 2014 delta pulse flow, United States and Mexico
Erich R. Mueller, John C. Schmidt, David J. Topping, Paul E. Grams
2015, Conference Paper
A pulse of water was released from Morelos Dam into the dry streambed of the Colorado River in its former delta on March 23, 2014. Although small in relation to delta floods of a century ago, this was the first flow to reach the sea in nearly two decades. The...
Rhenium: a rare metal critical in modern transportation
David A. John
2015, Fact Sheet 2014-3101
Rhenium is a silvery-white, metallic element with an extremely high melting point (3,180 degrees Celsius) and a heat-stable crystalline structure, making it exceptionally resistant to heat and wear. Since the late 1980s, rhenium has been critical for superalloys used in turbine blades and in catalysts used to produce lead-free gasoline. One...
Climate trends and projections for Guam
Stephen B. Gingerich, Victoria Keener, Melissa L. Finucane
2015, Report
The island of Guam experiences a tropical marine climate, which is warm and humid moderated by seasonal tradewinds and a wet and dry season. The dry season lasts from January to June, while the rainy months are from July to December. Annual rainfall totals 84-116 inches (2133-2946 mm), of which...
Alternative standardization approaches to improving streamflow reconstructions with ring-width indices of riparian trees
David M. Meko, Jonathan M. Friedman, Ramzi Touchan, Jesse R. Edmondson, Eleanor R. Griffin, Julian A. Scott
2015, The Holocene (25) 1093-1101
Old, multi-aged populations of riparian trees provide an opportunity to improve reconstructions of streamflow. Here, ring widths of 394 plains cottonwood (Populus deltoids, ssp. monilifera) trees in the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota, are used to reconstruct streamflow along the Little Missouri River (LMR), North Dakota,...
Land-use impacts on water resources and protected areas: applications of state-and-transition simulation modeling of future scenarios
Tamara Wilson, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Jason T. Sherba, Dick Cameron
2015, Conference Paper, AIMS Environmental Science
Human land use will increasingly contribute to habitat loss and water shortages in California, given future population projections and associated land-use demand. Understanding how land-use change may impact future water use and where existing protected areas may be threatened by land-use conversion will be important if effective, sustainable management approaches...
Organic sedimentation in modern lacustrine systems: A case study from Lake Malawi, East Africa
Geoffrey S. Ellis, Barry J. Katz, Christopher A. Scholz, Peter K. Swart
2015, Special Paper of the Geological Society of America (515) 19-47
This study examines the relationship between depositional environment and sedimentary organic geochemistry in Lake Malawi, East Africa, and evaluates the relative significance of the various processes that control sedimentary organic matter (OM) in lacustrine systems. Total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations in recent sediments from Lake Malawi range from 0.01 to...
Physical abrasion of mafic minerals and basalt grains: application to Martian aeolian deposits
Carin Cornwall, Joshua L. Bandfield, Timothy N. Titus, B. C. Schreiber, D. R. Montgomery
2015, Icarus (256) 13-21
Sediment maturity, or the mineralogical and physical characterization of sediment deposits, has been used to locate sediment source, transport medium and distance, weathering processes, and paleoenvironments on Earth. Mature terrestrial sands are dominated by quartz, which is abundant in source lithologies on Earth and is physically and chemically stable under...
Application of the FluEgg model to predict transport of Asian carp eggs in the Saint Joseph River (Great Lakes tributary)
Tatiana Garcia, Elizabeth A. Murphy, P. Ryan Jackson, Marcelo H. Garcia
2015, Journal of Great Lakes Research (41) 374-386
The Fluvial Egg Drift Simulator (FluEgg) is a three-dimensional Lagrangian model that simulates the movement and development of Asian carp eggs until hatching based on the physical characteristics of the flow field and the physical and biological characteristics of the eggs. This tool provides information concerning egg development and spawning...
Environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling improves occurrence and detection estimates of invasive Burmese pythons
Margaret E. Hunter, Sara J. Oyler-McCance, Robert M. Dorazio, Jennifer A. Fike, Brian J. Smith, Charles T. Hunter, Robert N. Reed, Kristen M. Hart
2015, PLoS ONE (10)
Environmental DNA (eDNA) methods are used to detect DNA that is shed into the aquatic environment by cryptic or low density species. Applied in eDNA studies, occupancy models can be used to estimate occurrence and detection probabilities and thereby account for imperfect detection. However, occupancy terminology has been applied inconsistently...
11.12 – Tools and techniques: gravitational method
Jeffrey Phillips
2015, Book chapter, Treatise on Geophysics
The gravitational method is used to investigate density variations within the subsurface at depths of several meters to tens of meters, as in depth-to-bedrock investigations, or at depths of several kilometers, as in sedimentary basin thickness investigations. This chapter covers fundamental relations, densities of Earth materials, instruments, field procedures, data...
Accuracy testing of electric groundwater-level measurement tapes
Jim Jelinski, Christopher S. Clayton, Janice M. Fulford
2015, Open-File Report 2014-1236
Electric tapes are used to measure groundwater levels and to verify the accuracy of pressure transducers installed in wells. Electric tapes are generally assumed to be accurate to ±0.01 foot (ft), but little information is available from the manufacturers and no accuracy studies have been conducted to confirm this value....
Carbon exchange between the atmosphere and subtropical forested cypress and pine wetlands
W. Barclay Shoemaker, Frank E. Anderson, Jordan G. Barr, Scott L. Graham, Daniel B. Botkin
2015, Biogeosciences (12) 2285-2300
Carbon dioxide exchange between the atmosphere and forested subtropical wetlands is largely unknown. Here we report a first step in characterizing this atmospheric–ecosystem carbon (C) exchange, for cypress strands and pine forests in the Greater Everglades of Florida as measured with eddy covariance methods at three locations (Cypress Swamp, Dwarf...
Ten ways remote sensing can contribute to conservation
Robert A. Rose, Dirck Byler, J. Ron Eastman, Erica Fleishman, Gary Geller, Scott Goetz, Liane Guild, Healy Hamilton, Matt Hansen, Rachel Headley, Jennifer Hewson, Ned Horning, Beth A. Kaplin, Nadine Laporte, Allison K. Leidner, Peter Leimgruber, Jeffrey T. Morisette, John Musinsky, Lilian Pintea, Ana Prados, Volker C. Radeloff, Mary Rowen, Sassan Saatchi, Steve Schill, Karyn Tabor, Woody Turner, Anthony Vodacek, James Vogelmann, Martin Wegmann, David Wilkie, Cara Wilson
2015, Conservation Biology (29) 350-359
In an effort to increase conservation effectiveness through the use of Earth observation technologies, a group of remote sensing scientists affiliated with government and academic institutions and conservation organizations identified 10 questions in conservation for which the potential to be answered would be greatly increased by use of remotely sensed...
Is there a single best estimator? selection of home range estimators using area- under- the-curve
W. David Walter, Dave P. Onorato, Justin W. Fischer
2015, Movement Ecology (3)
Background Global positioning system (GPS) technology for monitoring home range and movements of wildlife has resulted in prohibitively large sample sizes of locations for traditional estimators of home range. We used area-under-the-curve to explore the fit of 8 estimators of home range to data collected with...
The effect of research activities and winter precipitation on voiding behaviour of Agassiz’s desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii)
Mickey Agha, Mason O. Murphy, Jeffrey E. Lovich, Joshua R. Ennen, Christian R. Oldham, Kathie Meyer-Wilkins, Curtis Bjurlin, Meaghan Austin, Sheila V. Madrak, Caleb L. Loughran, Laura A. Tennant, Steven J. Price
2015, Wildlife Research (41) 641-649
Context: There is little information available on how research activities might cause stress responses in wildlife, especially responses of threatened species such as the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii). Aims: The present study aims to detect behavioural effects of researcher handling and winter precipitation on a natural population of desert tortoises in the desert...
Forecasting sagebrush ecosystem components and greater sage-grouse habitat for 2050: learning from past climate patterns and Landsat imagery to predict the future
Collin G. Homer, George Z. Xian, Cameron L. Aldridge, Debra K. Meyer, Thomas R. Loveland, Michael S. O’Donnell
2015, Ecological Indicators (55) 131-145
Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems constitute the largest single North American shrub ecosystem and provide vital ecological, hydrological, biological, agricultural, and recreational ecosystem services. Disturbances have altered and reduced this ecosystem historically, but climate change may ultimately represent the greatest future risk. Improved ways to quantify, monitor, and predict climate-driven gradual...
The modelling and assessment of whale-watching impacts
Leslie New, Ailsa J. Hall, Robert Harcourt, Greg Kaufman, E.C.M. Parsons, Heidi C. Pearson, A. Mel Cosentino, Robert S Schick
2015, Ocean and Coastal Management (115) 10-16
In recent years there has been significant interest in modelling cumulative effects and the population consequences of individual changes in cetacean behaviour and physiology due to disturbance. One potential source of disturbance that has garnered particular interest is whale-watching. Though perceived as ‘green’ or eco-friendly tourism, there is evidence that...
A sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) sex pheromone mixture increases trap catch relative to a single synthesized component in specific environments
Nicholas S. Johnson, John A. Tix, Benjamin L. Hlina, C. Michael Wagner, Michael J. Siefkes, Huiyong Wang, Weiming Li
2015, Journal of Chemical Ecology (41) 311-321
Spermiating male sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) release a sex pheromone, of which a component, 7α, 12α, 24-trihydoxy-3-one-5α-cholan-24-sulfate (3kPZS), has been identified and shown to induce long distance preference responses in ovulated females. However, other pheromone components exist, and when 3kPZS alone was used to control invasive sea lamprey...
Sediment contributions from floodplains and legacy sediments to Piedmont streams of Baltimore County, Maryland
Mitchell Donovan, Andrew Miller, Matthew Baker, Allen C. Gellis
2015, Geomorphology (235) 88-105
Disparity between watershed erosion rates and downstream sediment delivery has remained an important theme in geomorphology for many decades, with the role of floodplains in sediment storage as a common focus. In the Piedmont Province of the eastern USA, upland deforestation and agricultural land use following European settlement led...
Exposure to runoff from coal-tar-sealed pavement induces genotoxicity and impairment of DNA repair capacity in the RTL-W1 fish liver cell line
Aude Kienzler, Barbara Mahler, Peter C. Van Metre, Nathalie Schweigert, Alain Devaux, Sylvie Bony
2015, Science of the Total Environment (520) 73-80
Coal-tar-based (CTB) sealcoat, frequently applied to parking lots and driveways in North America, contains elevated concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and related compounds. The RTL-W1 fish liver cell line was used to investigate two endpoints (genotoxicity and DNA-repair-capacity impairment) associated with exposure to runoff from asphalt pavement with CTB...
Image mosaic and topographic map of the moon
Trent M. Hare, Rosalyn K. Hayward, Jennifer S. Blue, Brent A. Archinal
2015, Scientific Investigations Map 3316
Sheet 1: This image mosaic is based on data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Wide Angle Camera (WAC; Robinson and others, 2010), an instrument on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft (Tooley and others, 2010). The equatorial WAC images were orthorectified onto the Global Lunar...
Population dynamics of sea ducks: using models to understand the causes, consequences, evolution, and management of variation in life history characteristics
Paul L. Flint
2015, Book chapter, Ecology and conservation of North American sea ducks: Studies in Avian Biology v. 46
In this chapter, I explore population dynamics of sea ducks by developing population models. In determining which life history characteristics had the greatest influence on future population dynamics, adult female survival consistently had the highest sensitivity and elasticity and this result was robust across a wide range of life history...
Conclusions, synthesis, and future directions: understanding sources of population change
Daniel Esler, Paul L. Flint, Dirk V. Derksen, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, John M. Eadie
2015, Book chapter, Ecology and Conservation of North American Sea Ducks
The material in this volume reflects the burgeoning interest in sea ducks, both as study species with compelling and unique ecological attributes and as taxa of conservation concern. In this review, we provide perspective on the current state of sea duck knowledge by highlighting key findings in the preceding chapters...
