Northern Pintail
Robert G. Clark, Joseph P. Fleskes, Karla L. Guyn, David A. Haukos, Jane E. Austin, Michael R. Miller
2014, The Birds of North America
This medium-sized dabbling duck of slender, elegant lines and conservative plumage coloration is circumpolar in distribution and abundant in North America, with core nesting habitat in Alaska and the Prairie Pothole Region of southern Canada and the northern Great Plains. Breeders favor shallow wetlands interspersed throughout prairie grasslands or arctic...
Water quality monitoring protocol for wadeable streams and rivers in the Northern Great Plains Network
Marcia H. Wilson, Barbara L. Rowe, Robert A. Gitzen, Stephen K. Wilson, Kara J. Paintner-Green
2014, Natural Resource Report NPS/NGPN/NRR—2014/868
Preserving the national parks unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations is a fundamental purpose of the National Park Service (NPS). To address growing concerns regarding the overall physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes of park ecosystems, the NPS implemented science-based management through “Vital Signs” monitoring in 270 national...
Self-confidence of anglers in identification of freshwater sport fish
C.J. Chizinski, D. R. Martin, Kevin L. Pope
2014, Fisheries Management and Ecology (21) 448-453
Although several studies have focused on how well anglers identify species using replicas and pictures, there has been no study assessing the confidence that can be placed in angler's ability to identify recreationally important fish. Understanding factors associated with low self-confidence will be useful in tailoring education programmes to improve...
The impact of climate and reservoirs on longitudinal riverine carbon fluxes from two major watersheds in the Central and Intermontane West
Sarah M. Stackpoole, Edward G. Stets, Robert G. Striegl
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (119) 848-863
A nested sampling network on the Colorado (CR) and Missouri Rivers (MR) provided data to assess impacts of large-scale reservoir systems and climate on carbon export. The Load Estimator (LOADEST) model was used to estimate both dissolved inorganic and organic carbon (DIC and DOC) fluxes for a total of 22...
Potentiometric surface and water-level difference maps of selected confined aquifers in Southern Maryland and Maryland’s Eastern Shore, 1975-2013
Andrew W. Staley, David C. Andreasen, Stephen E. Curtin
2014, Open-File Report 14-02-02
Groundwater is the principal source of freshwater supply in most of Southern Maryland and Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It is also the source of freshwater supply used in the operation of the Calvert Cliffs, Chalk Point, and Morgantown power plants. Increased groundwater withdrawals over the last several decades have caused groundwater...
Experimental additions of aluminum sulfateand ammonium nitrate to in situ mesocosms toreduce cyanobacterial biovolume and microcystinconcentration
Theodore D. Harris, Frank M. Wilhelm, Jennifer L. Graham, Keith A. Loftin
2014, Lake and Reservoir Management (30) 84-93
Recent studies suggest that nitrogen additions to increase the total nitrogen:total phosphorus (TN:TP) ratio may reduce cyanobacterial biovolume and microcystin concentration in reservoirs. In systems where TP is >100 μg/L, however, nitrogen additions to increase the TN:TP ratio could cause ammonia, nitrate, or nitrite toxicity to terrestrial and aquatic organisms. Reducing phosphorus via...
Winter feeding, growth and condition of brown trout Salmo trutta in a groundwater-dominated stream
William E. French, Bruce C. Vondracek, Leonard C. Ferrington Jr., Jacques C. Finlay, Douglas J. Dieterman
2014, Journal of Freshwater Ecology (29) 187-200
Winter can be a stressful period for stream-dwelling salmonid populations, often resulting in reduced growth and survival. Stream water temperatures have been identified as a primary mechanism driving reductions in fitness during winter. However, groundwater inputs can moderate water temperature and may reduce winter severity. Additionally, seasonal reductions in prey...
A comparison of survey methods to evaluate macrophyte index of biotic integrity performance in Minnesota lakes
Bruce C. Vondracek, Justine D. Koch, Marcus W. Beck
2014, Ecological Indicators (36) 178-185
Aquatic macrophytes shape trophic web dynamics, provide food and refuge for macroinvertebrates and fish, and increase nutrient retention, sediment stabilization, and water clarity. Macrophytes are well-suited as indicators of ecological health because they are immobile, relatively easy to sample and identify, and respond to anthropogenic disturbance on an ecological time...
Captive propagation, reproductive biology, and early life history of the Diamond Darter (Crystallaria cincotta)
Crystal L. Ruble, Patrick L. Rakes, John R. Shute, Stuart A. Welsh
2014, American Midland Naturalist (172) 107-118
Reproductive biology and early life history data are critical for the conservation and management of rare fishes. During 2008–2012 a captive propagation study was conducted on the Diamond Darter, Crystallaria cincotta, a rare species with a single extant population in the lower Elk River, West Virginia. Water temperatures during spawning ranged...
Using lead isotopes and trace element records from two contrasting Lake Tanganyika sediment cores to assess watershed – Lake exchange
Kingsley Odigie, A.D. Cohen, Peter W. Swarzenski, R Flegal
2014, Applied Geochemistry (51) 184-190
Lead isotopic and trace element records of two contrasting sediment cores were examined to reconstruct historic, industrial contaminant inputs to Lake Tanganyika, Africa. Observed fluxes of Co, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn in age-dated sediments collected from the lake varied both spatially and temporally over the past two to...
Molecular signature of organic nitrogen in septic-impacted groundwater
William A. Arnold, Krista Longnecker, Kevin D. Kroeger, Elizabeth B. Kujawinski
2014, Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts (16) 2400-2407
Dissolved inorganic and organic nitrogen levels are elevated in aquatic systems due to anthropogenic activities. Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) arises from various sources, and its impact could be more clearly constrained if specific sources were identified and if the molecular-level composition of DON were better understood. In this work, the...
Exchange of nitrogen and phosphorus between a shallow lagoon and coastal waters
Melanie Hayn, Robert W. Howarth, Neil K. Ganju, Peter Berg, Kenneth H. Foreman, Anne E. Giblin, Karen McGlathery
2014, Estuaries and Coasts (37) 63-73
West Falmouth Harbor, a shallow lagoon on Cape Cod, has experienced a threefold increase in nitrogen load since the mid- to late 1990s due to input from a groundwater plume contaminated by a municipal wastewater treatment plant. We measured the exchange of nitrogen and phosphorus between the harbor and the...
Arsenic speciation and sorption in natural environments
Kate M. Campbell, D. Kirk Nordstrom
2014, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry (79) 185-216
Aqueous arsenic speciation, or the chemical forms in which arsenic exists in water, is a challenging, interesting, and complicated aspect of environmental arsenic geochemistry. Arsenic has the ability to form a wide range of chemical bonds with carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur, resulting in a large variety of compounds that...
Defining ecological and economical hydropoweroperations: a framework for managing dam releasesto meet multiple conflicting objectives
Elise R. Irwin
2014, Journal of Energy Challenges and Mechanics (1) 139-146
Hydroelectric dams are a flexible source of power, provide flood control, and contribute to the economic growth of local communities through real-estate and recreation. Yet the impoundment of rivers can alter and fragment miles of critical riverine habitat needed for other competing needs such as downstream consumptive water use, fish...
Waterfowl in Cuba: Current status and distribution
Pedro Blanco Rodriquez, Francisco Vilella, Barbara Sanchez Oria
2014, Wildfowl (4) 498-511
Cuba and its satellite islands represent the largest landmass in the Caribbean archipelago and a major repository of the region’s biodiversity. Approximately 13.4% of the Cuban territory is covered by wetlands, encompassing approximately 1.48 million ha which includes mangroves, flooded savannas, peatlands, freshwater swamp forests and various types of managed wetlands. Here, we synthesise...
USGS reservoir and lake gage network: Elevation and volumetric contents data, and their uses
Anita C. Kroska
2014, Lakeline (Spring 2014) 8-12
In December of 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) marked the 125th anniversary of the installation of its first official water level and streamflow gage, on the Rio Grande at Embudo, New Mexico. The gage was installed because it was recognized that water data were important to expanding irrigation needs....
A geologic approach to field methods in fluvial geomorphology
Faith A. Fitzpatrick
Mary J Thornbush, Casey D Allen, Faith A. Fitzpatrick, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Geomorphological Fieldwork
A geologic approach to field methods in fluvial geomorphology is useful for understanding causes and consequences of past, present, and possible future perturbations in river behavior and floodplain dynamics. Field methods include characterizing river planform and morphology changes and floodplain sedimentary sequences over long periods of time along a longitudinal...
Hydrologic alteration affects aquatic plant assemblages in an arid-land river
Mark R. Vinson, Bennett Hestmark, Mary E. Barkworth
2014, Southwestern Naturalist (59) 480-488
We evaluated the effects of long-term flow alteration on primary-producer assemblages. In 1962, Flaming Gorge Dam was constructed on the Green River. The Yampa River has remained an unregulated hydrologically variable river that joins the Green River 100 km downstream from Flaming Gorge Dam. In the 1960s before dam construction...
Integrating recent land cover mapping efforts to update the National Gap Analysis Program's species habitat map
Alexa McKerrow, A. Davidson, Todd Earnhardt, Abigail L. Benson
Charles Toth, Thomas Holm, Boris Jutz, editor(s)
2014, Conference Paper, Proceedings: ISPRS Technical Commission I Symposium (Volume XL-1)
Over the past decade, great progress has been made to develop national extent land cover mapping products to address natural resource issues. One of the core products of the GAP Program is range-wide species distribution models for nearly 2000 terrestrial vertebrate species in the U.S. We rely on deductive modeling...
Earthquake mechanism and seafloor deformation for tsunami generation
Eric L. Geist, David D. Oglesby
Michael Beer, Ioannis A. Kougioumtzoglou, Edoardo Patelli, Ivan Siu-Kui Au, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of earthquake engineering
Tsunamis are generated in the ocean by rapidly displacing the entire water column over a significant area. The potential energy resulting from this disturbance is balanced with the kinetic energy of the waves during propagation. Only a handful of submarine geologic phenomena can generate tsunamis: large-magnitude earthquakes, large landslides, and...
Predicting Impacts of tropical cyclones and sea-Level rise on beach mouse habitat
Q. Chen, Hongqing Wang, Lixia Wang, Robert Tawes, Drew Rollman
2014, Journal of Coastal Research (68) 12-19
Alabama beach mouse (ABM) (Peromyscus polionotus ammobates) is an important component of the coastal dune ecosystem along the Gulf of Mexico. Due to habitat loss and degradation, ABM is federally listed as an endangered species. In this study, we examined the impacts of storm surge and wind waves, which are...
Modeling the hydrogeophysical response of lake talik evolution
Burke J. Minsley, Tristan Wellman, Michelle Ann Walvoord, Andre Revil
2014, Conference Paper, SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts 2014
Geophysical methods provide valuable information about subsurface permafrost and its relation to dynamic hydrologic systems. Airborne electromagnetic data from interior Alaska are used to map the distribution of permafrost, geological features, surface water, and groundwater. To validate and gain further insight into these field datasets, we also explore the geophysical...
Hillslope-scale experiment demonstrates role of convergence during two-step saturation
A. I. Gevaert, A. J. Teuling, R. Uijlenhoet, Stephen B. DeLong, T. E. Huxman, L. A. Pangle, David D. Breshears, J. Chorover, John D. Pelletier, S. R. Saleska, X. Zeng, Peter A. Troch
2014, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (18) 3681-1692
Subsurface flow and storage dynamics at hillslope scale are difficult to ascertain, often in part due to a lack of sufficient high-resolution measurements and an incomplete understanding of boundary conditions, soil properties, and other environmental aspects. A continuous and extreme rainfall experiment on an artificial hillslope at Biosphere 2's Landscape...
2011 Summary: Coastal wetland restoration research
Kurt P. Kowalski, Michael J. Wiley, Douglas A. Wilcox, Martha L. Carlson Mazur, Alex Czayka, Andrea Dominguez, Susan Doty, Mike Eggleston, Sean Green, Amanda Sweetman
2014, Report
The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) projects currently taking place in Great Lakes coastal wetlands provide a unique opportunity to study ecosystem response to management actions as practitioners strive to improve wetland function and increase ecosystem services. Through a partnership between the U.S. Geological Survey – Great Lakes Science Center...
Continuous water-quality and suspended-sediment transport monitoring in the San Francisco Bay, California, water years 2011–13
Paul A. Buchanan, Maureen A. Downing-Kunz, David H. Schoellhamer, Gregory Shellenbarger, Kurt Weidich
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3090
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) monitors water quality and suspended-sediment transport in the San Francisco Bay. The San Francisco Bay area is home to millions of people, and the bay teems with both resident and migratory wildlife, plants, and fish. Fresh water mixes with salt water in the bay, which...
