Unsupported inferences of high-severity fire in historical dry forests of the western United States: Response to Williams and Baker
Peter Z. Fule, Thomas W. Swetnam, Peter M. Brown, Donald A. Falk, David L. Peterson, Craig D. Allen, Gregory H. Aplet, Mike A. Battaglia, Dan Binkley, Calvin Farris, Robert E. Keane, Ellis Q. Margolis, Henri Grissino-Mayer, Carol Miller, Carolyn Hull Sieg, Carl Skinner, Scott L. Stephens, Alan Taylor
2014, Global Ecology and Biogeography (23) 825-830
Reconstructions of dry western US forests in the late 19th century in Arizona, Colorado and Oregon based on General Land Office records were used by Williams & Baker (2012; Global Ecology and Biogeography, 21, 1042–1052; hereafter W&B) to infer past fire regimes with substantial moderate and high-severity burning. The authors...
Assessing the solubility controls on vanadium in groundwater, northeastern San Joaquin Valley, CA
Michael T. Wright, Kenneth G. Stollenwerk, Kenneth Belitz
2014, Applied Geochemistry (48) 41-52
The solubility controls on vanadium (V) in groundwater were studied due to concerns over possible harmful health effects of ingesting V in drinking water. Vanadium concentrations in the northeastern San Joaquin Valley ranged from <3 μg/L to 70 μg/L with a median of 21 μg/L. Concentrations of V were highest...
Analysis of the impact of spatial resolution on land/water classifications using high-resolution aerial imagery
Nicholas M. Enwright, William R. Jones, Adrienne L. Garber, Matthew J. Keller
2014, International Journal of Remote Sensing (35) 5280-5288
Long-term monitoring efforts often use remote sensing to track trends in habitat or landscape conditions over time. To most appropriately compare observations over time, long-term monitoring efforts strive for consistency in methods. Thus, advances and changes in technology over time can present a challenge. For instance, modern camera technology has...
Great Apes
Jonathan M. Sleeman, Shannon Cerveny
2014, Book chapter, Zoo animal and wildlife immobilization and anesthesia
Anesthesia of great apes is often necessary to conduct diagnostic analysis, provide therapeutics, facilitate surgical procedures, and enable transport and translocation for conservation purposes. Due to the stress of remote delivery injection of anesthetic agents, recent studies have focused on oral delivery and/or transmucosal absorption of preanesthetic and anesthetic agents....
Flood-inundation maps for the North Branch Elkhart River at Cosperville, Indiana
Moon H. Kim, Esther M. Johnson
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5128
Digital flood-inundation maps for a reach of the North Branch Elkhart River at Cosperville, Indiana (Ind.), were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District. The inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Science Web...
Incorporation of inorganic mercury (Hg2+) in pelagic food webs of ultraoligotrophic and oligotrophic lakes: the role of different plankton size fractions and species assemblages
Carolina Soto Cardenas, Maria C. Dieguez, Sergio Ribeiro Guevara, Mark Marvin-DiPasquale, Claudia P. Queimalinos
2014, Science of the Total Environment (494-495) 65-73
In lake food webs, pelagic basal organisms such as bacteria and phytoplankton incorporate mercury (Hg2+) from the dissolved phase and pass the adsorbed and internalized Hg to higher trophic levels. This experimental investigation addresses the incorporation of dissolved Hg2+ by four plankton fractions (picoplankton: 0.2–2.7 μm; pico + nanoplankton: 0.2–20...
Inference for finite-sample trajectories in dynamic multi-state site-occupancy models using hidden Markov model smoothing
Ian J. Fiske, J. Andrew Royle, Kevin Gross
2014, Environmental and Ecological Statistics (21) 313-328
Ecologists and wildlife biologists increasingly use latent variable models to study patterns of species occurrence when detection is imperfect. These models have recently been generalized to accommodate both a more expansive description of state than simple presence or absence, and Markovian dynamics in the latent state over successive sampling seasons....
Integrating land cover modeling and adaptive management to conserve endangered species and reduce catastrophic fire risk
David Breininger, Brean Duncan, Mitchell J. Eaton, Fred Johnson, James Nichols
2014, Land (3) 874-897
Land cover modeling is used to inform land management, but most often via a two-step process, where science informs how management alternatives can influence resources, and then, decision makers can use this information to make decisions. A more efficient process is to directly integrate science and decision-making, where science allows...
Mobilization of selenium from the Mancos Shale and associated soils in the lower Uncompahgre River Basin, Colorado
M. Alisa Mast, Taylor J. Mills, Suzanne S. Paschke, Gabrielle Keith, Joshua I. Linard
2014, Applied Geochemistry (48) 16-27
This study investigates processes controlling mobilization of selenium in the lower part of the Uncompahgre River Basin in western Colorado. Selenium occurs naturally in the underlying Mancos Shale and is leached to groundwater and surface water by limited natural runoff, agricultural and domestic irrigation, and leakage from irrigation canals. Soil...
Radar analysis of fall bird migration stopover sites in the northeastern U.S.
Jeffrey J. Buler, Deanna K. Dawson
2014, The Condor (116) 357-370
The national network of weather surveillance radars (WSR-88D) detects flying birds and is a useful remote-sensing tool for ornithological study. We used data collected during fall 2008 and 2009 by 16 WSR-88D radars in the northeastern U.S. to quantify the spatial distribution of landbirds during migratory stopover. We geo-referenced estimates...
COSMO-SkyMed Spotlight interometry over rural areas: the Slumgullion landslide in Colorado, USA
Pietro Milillo, Eric J. Fielding, William H. Schulz, Brent Delbridge, Roland Burgmann
2014, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (7) 2919-2926
In the last 7 years, spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data with resolution of better than a meter acquired by satellites in spotlight mode offered an unprecedented improvement in SAR interferometry (InSAR). Most attention has been focused on monitoring urban areas and man-made infrastructure exploiting geometric accuracy, stability, and phase...
Biomass modeling of four water intensiveleading world crops using hyperspectral narrowbands in support of HyspIRI Mission
Michael T. Marshall, Prasad S. Thenkabail
2014, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (80) 757-772
New satellite missions are expected to record high spectral resolution information globally and consistently for the first time, so it is important to identify modeling techniques that take advantage of these new data. In this paper, we estimate biomass for four major crops using ground-based hyperspectral narrowbands. The spectra and...
Accuracy of travel time distribution (TTD) models as affected by TTD complexity, observation errors, and model and tracer selection
Christopher T. Green, Yong Zhang, Bryant C. Jurgens, J. Jeffrey Starn, Matthew K. Landon
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 6191-6213
Analytical models of the travel time distribution (TTD) from a source area to a sample location are often used to estimate groundwater ages and solute concentration trends. The accuracies of these models are not well known for geologically complex aquifers. In this study, synthetic datasets were used to quantify the...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for North Carolina
William J. Carswell Jr.
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3066
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, and recreation. For the State of North Carolina, elevation data are critical for flood risk management, natural resources conservation, agriculture and precision farming, infrastructure and construction management, forest resources management,...
Timing of ore-related magmatism in the western Alaska Range, southwestern Alaska
Ryan D. Taylor, Garth E. Graham, Eric D. Anderson, David Selby
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1115
This report presents isotopic age data from mineralized granitic plutons in an area of the Alaska Range located approximately 200 kilometers to the west-northwest of Anchorage in southwestern Alaska. Uranium-lead isotopic data and trace element concentrations of zircons were determined for 12 samples encompassing eight plutonic bodies ranging in age...
Methow River Studies, Washington: abundance estimates from Beaver Creek and the Chewuch River screw trap, methodology testing in the Whitefish Island side channel, and survival and detection estimates from hatchery fish releases, 2013
Kyle D. Martens, Teresa M. Fish, Grace A. Watson, Patrick J. Connolly
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1154
Salmon and steelhead populations have been severely depleted in the Columbia River from factors such as the presence of tributary dams, unscreened irrigation diversions, and habitat degradation from logging, mining, grazing, and others (Raymond, 1988). The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been funded by the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) to...
Influences of water and sediment quality and hydrologic processes on mussels in the Clinch River
Gregory C. Johnson, Jennifer L. Krstolic, Brett J.K. Ostby
2014, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (50) 878-897
Segments of the Clinch River in Virginia have experienced declining freshwater mussel populations during the past 40 years, while other segments of the river continue to support some of the richest mussel communities in the country. The close proximity of these contrasting reaches provides a study area where differences...
Human and bovine viruses in the Milwaukee River Watershed: hydrologically relevant representation and relations with environmental variables
Steven R. Corsi, M. A. Borchardt, S. K. Spencer, Peter E. Hughes, Austin K. Baldwin
2014, Science of the Total Environment (490) 849-860
To examine the occurrence, hydrologic variability, and seasonal variability of human and bovine viruses in surface water, three stream locations were monitored in the Milwaukee River watershed in Wisconsin, USA, from February 2007 through June 2008. Monitoring sites included an urban subwatershed, a rural subwatershed, and the Milwaukee River at...
A reconnaissance spatial and temporal assessment of methane and inorganic constituents in groundwater in bedrock aquifers, Pike County, Pennsylvania, 2012-13
Lisa A. Senior
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5117
Pike County in northeastern Pennsylvania is underlain by the Devonian-age Marcellus Shale and other shales, formations that have potential for natural gas development. During 2012–13, the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Pike County Conservation District conducted a reconnaissance study to assess baseline shallow groundwater quality in bedrock aquifers...
Flood-inundation maps for the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 2013
Mark A. Roland, Stacey M. Underwood, Craig M. Thomas, Jason F. Miller, Benjamin A. Pratt, Laurie G. Hogan, Patricia A. Wnek
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5046
A series of 28 digital flood-inundation maps was developed for an approximate 25-mile reach of the Susquehanna River in the vicinity of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The study was selected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) national Silver Jackets program, which supports interagency teams at the state level to coordinate...
Bathymetric and velocimetric surveys at highway bridges crossing the Missouri River between Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri, April-May, 2013
Richard J. Huizinga
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5116
Bathymetric and velocimetric data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Transportation, in the vicinity of 10 bridges at 9 highway crossings of the Missouri River between Lexington and Washington, Missouri, from April 22 through May 2, 2013. A multibeam echosounder mapping system...
Key subsurface data help to refine Trinity aquifer hydrostratigraphic units, south-central Texas
Charles D. Blome, Allan K. Clark
2014, Data Series 768
The geologic framework and hydrologic characteristics of aquifers are important components for studying the nation’s subsurface heterogeneity and predicting its hydraulic budgets. Detailed study of an aquifer’s subsurface hydrostratigraphy is needed to understand both its geologic and hydrologic frameworks. Surface hydrostratigraphic mapping can also help characterize the spatial distribution and...
Linking rapid magma reservoir assembly and eruption trigger mechanisms at evolved Yellowstone-type supervolcanoes
J.F. Wotzlaw, I.N. Bindeman, Kathryn E. Watts, A.K. Schmitt, L. Caricchi, U. Schaltegger
2014, Geology (42) 807-810
The geological record contains evidence of volcanic eruptions that were as much as two orders of magnitude larger than the most voluminous eruption experienced by modern civilizations, the A.D. 1815 Tambora (Indonesia) eruption. Perhaps nowhere on Earth are deposits of such supereruptions more prominent than in the Snake River Plain–Yellowstone...
A hierarchical model combining distance sampling and time removal to estimate detection probability during avian point counts
Courtney L. Amundson, J. Andrew Royle, Colleen M. Handel
2014, The Auk (131) 476-494
Imperfect detection during animal surveys biases estimates of abundance and can lead to improper conclusions regarding distribution and population trends. Farnsworth et al. (2005) developed a combined distance-sampling and time-removal model for point-transect surveys that addresses both availability (the probability that an animal is available for detection; e.g., that a...
Design of a sediment-monitoring gaging network on ephemeral tributaries of the Colorado River in Glen, Marble, and Grand Canyons, Arizona
Ronald E. Griffiths, David J. Topping, Robert S. Anderson, Gregory S. Hancock, Theodore S. Melis
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1137
Management of sediment in rivers downstream from dams requires knowledge of both the sediment supply and downstream sediment transport. In some dam-regulated rivers, the amount of sediment supplied by easily measured major tributaries may overwhelm the amount of sediment supplied by the more difficult to measure lesser tributaries. In this...
