Links between riparian landcover, instream environment and fish assemblages in headwater streams of south-eastern Brazil
Bruna B. Cruz, Leandro E. Miranda, Mauricio Cetra
2013, Ecology of Freshwater Fish (22) 607-616
We hypothesised and tested a hierarchical organisation model where riparian landcover would influence bank composition and light availability, which in turn would influence instream environments and control fish assemblages. The study was conducted during the dry season in 11 headwater tributaries of the Sorocaba River in the upper Paraná River...
Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science research plan 2013-18
E. Lynn Usery
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1189
The U.S. Geological Survey Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS) was created in 2006 and since that time has provided research primarily in support of The National Map. The presentations and publications of the CEGIS researchers document the research accomplishments that include advances in electronic topographic map design,...
A comparison of adaptive sampling designs and binary spatial models: A simulation study using a census of Bromus inermis
Kathryn M. Irvine, Jamie Thornton, Vickie M. Backus, Matthew G. Hohmann, Erik A. Lehnhoff, Bruce D. Maxwell, Kurt Michels, Lisa Rew
2013, Environmetrics (24) 407-417
Commonly in environmental and ecological studies, species distribution data are recorded as presence or absence throughout a spatial domain of interest. Field based studies typically collect observations by sampling a subset of the spatial domain. We consider the effects of six different adaptive and two non-adaptive sampling designs and choice...
Validating predictions from climate envelope models
J. Watling, D. Bucklin, C. Speroterra, L. Brandt, C. Cabal, Stephanie S. Romañach, Frank J. Mazzotti
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Climate envelope models are a potentially important conservation tool, but their ability to accurately forecast species’ distributional shifts using independent survey data has not been fully evaluated. We created climate envelope models for 12 species of North American breeding birds previously shown to have experienced poleward range shifts. For each...
A comparative assessment of tools for ecosystem services quantification and valuation
Kenneth J. Bagstad, Darius J. Semmens, Sissel Waage, Robert Winthrop
2013, Ecosystem Services (5) 27-39
To enter widespread use, ecosystem service assessments need to be quantifiable, replicable, credible, flexible, and affordable. With recent growth in the field of ecosystem services, a variety of decision-support tools has emerged to support more systematic ecosystem services assessment. Despite the growing complexity of the tool landscape, thorough reviews of...
Changes in the structure and function of northern Alaskan ecosystems when considering variable leaf-out times across groupings of species in a dynamic vegetation model
E.S. Euskirchen, T.B. Carman, Anthony D. McGuire
2013, Global Change Biology (20) 963-978
The phenology of arctic ecosystems is driven primarily by abiotic forces, with temperature acting as the main determinant of growing season onset and leaf budburst in the spring. However, while the plant species in arctic ecosystems require differing amounts of accumulated heat for leaf-out, dynamic vegetation models simulated over regional...
Design tradeoffs for trend assessment in aquatic biological monitoring programs
Martin E. Gurtz, John Van Sickle, Daren M. Carlisle, Steven G. Paulsen
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1222
Assessments of long-term (multiyear) temporal trends in biological monitoring programs are generally undertaken without an adequate understanding of the temporal variability of biological communities. When the sources and levels of variability are unknown, managers cannot make informed choices in sampling design to achieve monitoring goals in a cost-effective manner. We...
Status and understanding of groundwater quality in the South Coast Range-Coastal study unit, 2008: California GAMA Priority Basin Project
Carmen A. Burton, Michael Land, Kenneth Belitz
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5053
Groundwater quality in the South Coast Range–Coastal (SCRC) study unit was investigated from May through November 2008 as part of the Priority Basin Project of the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The study unit is located in the Southern Coast Range hydrologic province and includes parts of Santa...
Simulating stream transport of nutrients in the eastern United States, 2002, using a spatially-referenced regression model and 1:100,000-scale hydrography
Anne B. Hoos, Richard B. Moore, Ana Maria Garcia, Gregory B. Noe, Silvia E. Terziotti, Craig M. Johnston, Robin L. Dennis
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5102
Existing Spatially Referenced Regression on Watershed attributes (SPARROW) nutrient models for the northeastern and southeastern regions of the United States were recalibrated to achieve a hydrographically consistent model with which to assess nutrient sources and stream transport and investigate specific management questions about the effects of wetlands and atmospheric deposition...
Reevaluation of a walleye (Sander vitreus) bioenergetics model
Charles P. Madenjian, Chunfang Wang
2013, Fish Physiology and Biochemistry (39) 749-754
Walleye (Sander vitreus) is an important sport fish throughout much of North America, and walleye populations support valuable commercial fisheries in certain lakes as well. Using a corrected algorithm for balancing the energy budget, we reevaluated the performance of the Wisconsin bioenergetics model for walleye in the laboratory. Walleyes were...
Enhancements to the Mississippi Embayment Regional Aquifer Study (MERAS) groundwater-flow model and simulations of sustainable water-level scenarios
Brian R. Clark, Drew A. Westerman, D. Todd Fugitt
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5161
Arkansas continues to be one of the largest users of groundwater in the Nation. As such, long-term planning and management are essential to ensure continued availability of groundwater and surface water for years to come. The Mississippi Embayment Regional Aquifer Study (MERAS) model was developed previously as a tool to...
Use of multi-node wells in the Groundwater-Management Process of MODFLOW-2005 (GWM-2005)
David P. Ahlfeld, Paul M. Barlow
2013, Techniques and Methods 6-A47
Many groundwater wells are open to multiple aquifers or to multiple intervals within a single aquifer. These types of wells can be represented in numerical simulations of groundwater flow by use of the Multi-Node Well (MNW) Packages developed for the U.S. Geological Survey’s MODFLOW model. However, previous versions of the...
Plant responses, climate pivot points, and trade-offs in water-limited ecosystems
Seth M. Munson
2013, Ecosphere (4)
Plant species in dryland ecosystems are limited by water availability and may be vulnerable to increases in aridity. Methods are needed to monitor and assess the rate of change in plant abundance and composition in relation to climate, understand the potential for degradation in dryland ecosystems, and forecast future changes...
A hybrid double-observer sightability model for aerial surveys
Paul C. Griffin, Bruce C. Lubow, Kurt J. Jenkins, David J. Vales, Barbara J. Moeller, Mason Reid, Patricia J. Happe, Scott M. Mccorquodale, Michelle J. Tirhi, Jim P. Schaberi, Katherine Beirne
2013, Journal of Wildlife Management (77) 1532-1544
Raw counts from aerial surveys make no correction for undetected animals and provide no estimate of precision with which to judge the utility of the counts. Sightability modeling and double-observer (DO) modeling are 2 commonly used approaches to account for detection bias and to estimate precision in aerial surveys. We...
Evaluating changes to reservoir rule curves using historical water-level data
Ethan Mower, Leandro E. Miranda
2013, International Journal of River Basin Management (11) 323-328
Flood control reservoirs are typically managed through rule curves (i.e. target water levels) which control the storage and release timing of flood waters. Changes to rule curves are often contemplated and requested by various user groups and management agencies with no information available about the actual flood risk of such...
Ranking contributing areas of salt and selenium in the Lower Gunnison River Basin, Colorado, using multiple linear regression models
Joshua I. Linard
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5075
Mitigating the effects of salt and selenium on water quality in the Grand Valley and lower Gunnison River Basin in western Colorado is a major concern for land managers. Previous modeling indicated means to improve the models by including more detailed geospatial data and a more rigorous method for developing...
Updating the planetary time scale: focus on Mars
Kenneth L. Tanaka, Cathy Quantin-Nataf
2013, Ciencias Da Terra
Formal stratigraphic systems have been developed for the surface materials of the Moon, Mars, Mercury, and the Galilean satellite Ganymede. These systems are based on geologic mapping, which establishes relative ages of surfaces delineated by superposition, morphology, impact crater densities, and other relations and features. Referent units selected from the...
SSR_pipeline: a bioinformatic infrastructure for identifying microsatellites from paired-end Illumina high-throughput DNA sequencing data
Mark P. Miller, Brian J. Knaus, Thomas D. Mullins, Susan M. Haig
2013, Journal of Heredity (104) 881-885
SSR_pipeline is a flexible set of programs designed to efficiently identify simple sequence repeats (e.g., microsatellites) from paired-end high-throughput Illumina DNA sequencing data. The program suite contains 3 analysis modules along with a fourth control module that can automate analyses of large volumes of data. The modules are used to...
Baseline monitoring of the western Arctic Ocean estimates 20% of the Canadian Basin surface waters are undersaturated with respect to aragonite
Lisa L. Robbins, Jonathan G. Wynn, John T. Lisle, Kimberly K. Yates, Paul O. Knorr, Robert H. Byrne, Xuewu Liu, Mark C. Patsavas, Kumiko Azetsu-Scott, Taro Takahashi
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Marine surface waters are being acidified due to uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide, resulting in surface ocean areas of undersaturation with respect to carbonate minerals, including aragonite. In the Arctic Ocean, acidification is expected to occur at an accelerated rate with respect to the global oceans, but a paucity of...
Regional signatures of plant response to drought and elevated temperature across a desert ecosystem
Seth M. Munson, Esteban H. Muldavin, Jayne Belnap, Debra P.C. Peters, John P. Anderson, M. Hildegard Reiser, Kirsten Gallo, Alicia Melgoza-Castillo, Jeffrey E. Herrick, Tim A. Christiansen
2013, Ecology (94) 2030-2041
The performance of many desert plant species in North America may decline with the warmer and drier conditions predicted by climate change models, thereby accelerating land degradation and reducing ecosystem productivity. We paired repeat measurements of plant canopy cover with climate at multiple sites across the Chihuahuan Desert over the...
A scenario and forecast model for Gulf of Mexico hypoxic area and volume
Donald Scavia, Mary Anne Evans, Daniel R. Obenour
2013, Environmental Science & Technology (47)
For almost three decades, the relative size of the hypoxic region on the Louisiana-Texas continental shelf has drawn scientific and policy attention. During that time, both simple and complex models have been used to explore hypoxia dynamics and to provide management guidance relating the size of the hypoxic zone...
Characterizing regional soil mineral composition using spectroscopyand geostatistics
V.L. Mulder, S. de Bruin, J. Weyermann, Raymond F. Kokaly, M.E. Schaepman
2013, Remote Sensing of Environment (139) 415-429
This work aims at improving the mapping of major mineral variability at regional scale using scale-dependent spatial variability observed in remote sensing data. Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data and statistical methods were combined with laboratory-based mineral characterization of field samples to create maps of the distributions...
Nickel-cobalt laterites: a deposit model
Erin E. Marsh, Eric D. Anderson, Floyd Gray
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2010-5070-H
Nickel-cobalt (Ni-Co) laterite deposits are supergene enrichments of Ni±Co that form from intense chemical and mechanical weathering of ultramafic parent rocks. These regolith deposits typically form within 26 degrees of the equator, although there are a few exceptions. They form in active continental margins and stable cratonic settings. It takes...
Geohydrology, geochemistry, and groundwater simulation (1992-2011) and analysis of potential water-supply management options, 2010-60, of the Langford Basin, California
Lois M. Voronin, Jill N. Densmore, Peter Martin, Charles F. Brush, Carl S. Carlson, David M. Miller
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5101
Groundwater withdrawals began in 1992 from the Langford Basin within the Fort Irwin National Training Center (NTC), California. From April 1992 to December 2010, approximately 12,300 acre-feet of water (averaging about 650 acre-feet per year) has been withdrawn from the basin and transported to the adjacent Irwin Basin. Since withdrawals...
The distribution and modeling of nitrate transport in the Carson Valley alluvial aquifer, Douglas County, Nevada
Ramon C. Naranjo, Toby L. Welborn, Michael R. Rosen
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2013-5136
Residents of Carson Valley in Douglas County, Nevada, rely on groundwater from an alluvial aquifer for domestic use and agricultural irrigation. Since the 1970s, there has been a rapid increase in population in several parts of the valley that rely on domestic wells for drinking water and septic systems for...
