A brief test of the Hewlett-Packard MEMS seismic accelerometer
Brian D. Homeijer, Donald J. Milligan, Charles R. Hutt
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1047
Testing was performed on a prototype of Hewlett-Packard (HP) Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) seismic accelerometer at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory. This prototype was built using discrete electronic components. The self-noise level was measured during low seismic background conditions and found to be 9.8 ng/√Hz at periods below 0.2...
Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) resource selection in the northern Bering Sea
Chadwick V. Jay, Jacqueline M. Grebmeier, Anthony S. Fischbach, Trent L. McDonald, Lee W. Cooper, Fawn Hornsby
2014, PLoS ONE (9)
The Pacific walrus is a large benthivore with an annual range extending across the continental shelves of the Bering and Chukchi Seas. We used a discrete choice model to estimate site selection by adult radio-tagged walruses relative to the availability of the caloric biomass of benthic infauna and sea ice...
Land-use threats and protected areas: a scenario-based, landscape level approach
Tamara S. Wilson, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Rachel R. Sleeter, Christopher E. Soulard
2014, Land (3) 362-389
Anthropogenic land use will likely present a greater challenge to biodiversity than climate change this century in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Even if species are equipped with the adaptive capacity to migrate in the face of a changing climate, they will likely encounter a human-dominated landscape as a major dispersal...
Adverse moisture events predict seasonal abundance of Lyme disease vector ticks (Ixodes scapularis)
Kathryn A. Berger, Howard S. Ginsberg, Katherine D. Dugas, Lutz H. Hamel, Thomas N. Mather
2014, Parasites & Vectors (7)
Background: Lyme borreliosis (LB) is the most commonly reported vector-borne disease in north temperate regions worldwide, affecting an estimated 300,000 people annually in the United States alone. The incidence of LB is correlated with human exposure to its vector, the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis). To date, attempts to model tick...
Statistics for stochastic modeling of volume reduction, hydrograph extension, and water-quality treatment by structural stormwater runoff best management practices (BMPs)
Gregory E. Granato
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5037
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM) in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to indicate the risk for stormwater concentrations, flows, and loads to be above user-selected water-quality goals and the potential effectiveness of mitigation measures to reduce such risks. SELDM...
Polychlorinated biphenyl concentrations of burbot Lota lota from Great Slave Lake are very low but vary by sex
Charles P. Madenjian, Martin A. Stapanian, Peter A. Cott, Richard R. Rediske, James P. O'Keefe
2014, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (66) 529-537
Total polychlorinated biphenyl concentrations (ΣPCBs) in whole fish were determined for 18 ripe female burbot Lota lota and 14 ripe male burbot from Great Slave Lake, a lake with no known point sources of PCBs. In addition, ΣPCBs were determined both in the somatic tissue and in the gonads...
A multispecies statistical age-structured model to assess predator-prey balance: application to an intensively managed Lake Michigan pelagic fish community
Iyob Tsehaye, Michael L. Jones, James R. Bence, Travis O. Brenden, Charles P. Madenjian, David M. Warner
2014, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (71) 627-644
Using a Bayesian model fitting approach, we developed a multispecies statistical catch-at-age model to assess trade-offs between predatory demands and prey productivities, focusing on the Lake Michigan pelagic fish community. We assessed these trade-offs in terms of predation mortalities and productivities of alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax)...
Projecting climate effects on birds and reptiles of the Southwestern United States
Charles van Riper III, James R. Hatten, J. Tomasz Giermakowski, David Mattson, Jennifer A. Holmes, Matthew J. Johnson, Erika M. Nowak, Kirsten Ironside, Michael Peters, Paul Heinrich, K.L. Cole, C. Truettner, Cecil R. Schwalbe
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1050
We modeled the current and future breeding ranges of seven bird and five reptile species in the Southwestern United States with sets of landscape, biotic (plant), and climatic global circulation model (GCM) variables. For modeling purposes, we used PRISM data to characterize the climate of the Western United States between 1980...
Parasite-mediated selection drives an immunogenetic tradeoff in plains zebra (Equus quagga)
Pauline L. Kamath, Wendy C. Turner, Martina Kusters, Wayne M. Getz
2014, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (281)
Pathogen evasion of the host immune system is a key force driving extreme polymorphism in genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Although this gene family is well characterized in structure and function, there is still much debate surrounding the mechanisms by which MHC diversity is selectively maintained. Many studies...
Simulation of groundwater flow and interaction of groundwater and surface water on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation, Wisconsin
Paul F. Juckem, Michael N. Fienen, Randall J. Hunt
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5020
The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Indian Health Service are interested in improving the understanding of groundwater flow and groundwater/surface-water interaction on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation (Reservation) in southwest Vilas County and southeast Iron County, Wisconsin, with particular interest in an understanding of the potential...
Groundwater availability in the Crouch Branch and McQueen Branch aquifers, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, 1900-2012
Bruce G. Campbell, James Landmeyer
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5050
Chesterfield County is located in the northeastern part of South Carolina along the southern border of North Carolina and is primarily underlain by unconsolidated sediments of Late Cretaceous age and younger of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Approximately 20 percent of Chesterfield County is in the Piedmont Physiographic Province, and this...
Noble gas isotopes in mineral springs within the Cascadia Forearc, Washington and Oregon
Patricia A. McCrory, James E. Constantz, Andrew G. Hunt
2014, Open-File Report 2014-1064
This U.S. Geological Survey report presents laboratory analyses along with field notes for a pilot study to document the relative abundance of noble gases in mineral springs within the Cascadia forearc of Washington and Oregon. Estimates of the depth to the underlying Juan de Fuca oceanic plate beneath the sample...
Testing metapopulation concepts: effects of patch characteristics and neighborhood occupancy on the dynamics of an endangered lagomorph
Mitchell J. Eaton, Phillip T. Hughes, James E. Hines, James D. Nichols
2014, Oikos (123) 662-676
Metapopulation ecology is a field that is richer in theory than in empirical results. Many existing empirical studies use an incidence function approach based on spatial patterns and key assumptions about extinction and colonization rates. Here we recast these assumptions as hypotheses to be tested using 18 years of historic...
Linking aquifer spatial properties and non-Fickian transport in mobile-immobile like alluvial settings
Yong Zhang, Christopher T. Green, Boris Baeumer
2014, Journal of Hydrology (512) 315-331
Time-nonlocal transport models can describe non-Fickian diffusion observed in geological media, but the physical meaning of parameters can be ambiguous, and most applications are limited to curve-fitting. This study explores methods for predicting the parameters of a temporally tempered Lévy motion (TTLM) model for transient sub-diffusion in mobile–immobile like alluvial...
Decadal surface water quality trends under variable climate, land use, and hydrogeochemical setting in Iowa, USA
Christopher T. Green, Barbara A. Bekins, Stephen J. Kalkhoff, Robert M. Hirsch, Lixia Liao, Kimberlee K. Barnes
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 2425-2443
Understanding how nitrogen fluxes respond to changes in agriculture and climate is important for improving water quality. In the midwestern United States, expansion of corn cropping for ethanol production led to increasing N application rates in the 2000s during a period of extreme variability of annual precipitation. To examine the...
Delineation of brine contamination in and near the East Poplar oil field, Fort Peck Indian Reservation, northeastern Montana, 2004-09
Joanna N. Thamke, Bruce D. Smith
2014, Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5024
The extent of brine contamination in the shallow aquifers in and near the East Poplar oil field is as much as 17.9 square miles and appears to be present throughout the entire saturated zone in contaminated areas. The brine contamination affects 15–37 billion gallons of groundwater. Brine contamination in the...
Sedimentary facies of the upper Cambrian (Furongian; Jiangshanian and Sunwaptan) Tunnel City Group, Upper Mississippi Valley: new insight on the old stormy debate
Jennifer D. Eoff
2014, Sedimentary Geology (302) 102-121
New data from detailed measured sections permit a comprehensive revision of the sedimentary facies of the Furongian (upper Cambrian; Jiangshanian and Sunwaptan stages) Tunnel City Group (Lone Rock Formation and Mazomanie Formation) of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Heterogeneous sandstones, comprising seven lithofacies along a depositional transect from shoreface to transitional-offshore environments,...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for Missouri
William J. Carswell Jr.
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3020
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. For the State of Missouri, elevation data are critical for agriculture and precision farming; natural resources conservation; flood risk management; homeland security, law enforcement, and disaster...
Does the timing of attainment of maturity influence sexual size dimorphism and adult sex ratio in turtles?
Jeffrey E. Lovich, J. Whitfield Gibbons, Mickey Agha
2014, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (112) 142-149
The attainment of sexual maturity has been shown to affect measures of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) and adult sex ratios in several groups of vertebrates. Using data for turtles, we tested the model that sex ratios are expected to be male-biased when females are larger than males and female-biased when...
Impacts of upper respiratory tract disease on olfactory behavior of the Mojave desert tortoise
Jennifer Germano, Vanessa E. Van Zerr, Todd C. Esque, Ken E. Nussear, Nadine Lamberski
2014, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (50) 354-358
Upper respiratory tract disease (URTD) caused by Mycoplasma agassizii is considered a threat to desert tortoise populations that should be addressed as part of the recovery of the species. Clinical signs can be intermittent and include serous or mucoid nasal discharge and respiratory difficulty when nares are occluded. This nasal...
A survey of benthic sediment contaminants in reaches of the Columbia River Estuary based on channel sedimentation characteristics
Timothy D. Counihan, Ian R. Waite, Elena B. Nilsen, Jill M. Hardiman, Edwin Elias, Guy Gelfenbaum, Steven D. Zaugg
2014, Science of the Total Environment (484) 331-343
While previous studies have documented contaminants in fish, sediments, water, and wildlife, few specifics are known about the spatial distribution of contaminants in the Columbia River Estuary (CRE). Our study goal was to characterize sediment contaminant detections and concentrations in reaches of the CRE that were concurrently being sampled to...
Stream macroinvertebrate response models for bioassessment metrics: addressing the issue of spatial scale
Ian R. White, Jonathan G. Kennen, Jason T. May, Larry R. Brown, Thomas F. Cuffney, Kimberly A. Jones, James L. Orlando
2014, PLoS ONE (9) 1-21
We developed independent predictive disturbance models for a full regional data set and four individual ecoregions (Full Region vs. Individual Ecoregion models) to evaluate effects of spatial scale on the assessment of human landscape modification, on predicted response of stream biota, and the effect of other possible confounding factors, such...
Response of a tall building far from the epicenter of the 11 March 2011 M 9.0 Great East Japan earthquake and aftershocks
Mehmet Celebi, Masanori Iiba, Izuru Okawa, Toshidate Kashima, Shin Koyama
2014, The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings (23) 427-441
The 11 March 2011 M 9.0 Great East Japan earthquake generated significant long-duration shaking that propagated hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter and affected urban areas throughout much of Honshu. Recorded responses of a tall building at 770 km from the epicenter of the mainshock and other related or unrelated events show...
Triggering and modulation of geyser eruptions in Yellowstone National Park by earthquakes, earth tides, and weather
Shaul Hurwitz, Robert A. Sohn, Karen M. Luttrell, Michael Manga
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (119) 1718-1737
We analyze intervals between eruptions (IBEs) data acquired between 2001 and 2011 at Daisy and Old Faithful geysers in Yellowstone National Park. We focus our statistical analysis on the response of these geysers to stress perturbations from within the solid earth (earthquakes and earth tides) and from weather (air pressure...
Levee crest elevation profiles derived from airborne lidar-based high resolution digital elevation models in south Louisiana
Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Cindy A. Thatcher, John A. Barras
2014, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (91) 114-126
This study explores the feasibility of using airborne lidar surveys to construct high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) and develop an automated procedure to extract levee longitudinal elevation profiles for both federal levees in Atchafalaya Basin and local levees in Lafourche Parish, south Lousiana. This approach can successfully accommodate a high...
