Wastewater indicator compounds in wastewater effluent, surface water, and bed sediment in the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway and implications for water resources and aquatic biota, Minnesota and Wisconsin, 2007-08
Abigail A. Tomasek, Kathy Lee, Donald S. Hansen
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5208
The U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service cooperated on a study to determine the occurrence of wastewater indicator compounds including nutrients; organic wastewater compounds (OWCs), such as compounds used in plastic components, surfactant metabolites, antimicrobials, fragrances, and fire retardants; and pharmaceuticals in the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway...
Integrating scales of seagrass monitoring to meet conservation needs
Hilary A. Neckles, Blaine S. Kopp, Bradley J. Peterson, Penelope S. Pooler
2012, Estuaries and Coasts (35) 23-46
We evaluated a hierarchical framework for seagrass monitoring in two estuaries in the northeastern USA: Little Pleasant Bay, Massachusetts, and Great South Bay/Moriches Bay, New York. This approach includes three tiers of monitoring that are integrated across spatial scales and sampling intensities. We identified monitoring attributes for determining attainment of...
Fluid geochemistry of Yucca Mountain and vicinity
Brian D. Marshall, Richard J. Moscati, Gary L. Patterson
John S. Stuckless, editor(s)
2012, Book chapter, Hydrology and geochemistry of Yucca Mountain and vicinity, Southern Nevada and California
Yucca Mountain, a site in southwest Nevada, has been proposed for a deep underground radioactive waste repository. An extensive database of geochemical and isotopic characteristics has been established for pore waters and gases from the unsaturated zone, perched water, and saturated zone waters in the Yucca Mountain area. The development...
Steroidal hormones and other endocrine active compounds in shallow groundwater in nonagricultural areas of Minnesota—Study design, methods, and data, 2009–10
Melinda L. Erickson
2012, Data Series 663
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, completed a study on the occurrence of steroidal hormones and other endocrine active compounds in shallow groundwater in nonagricultural areas of Minnesota during 2009–10. This report describes the study design and methods, and presents the data collected on...
Base flow (1966-2009) and streamflow gain and loss (2010) of the Brazos River from the New Mexico-Texas State line to Waco, Texas
Stanley Baldys, Frank E. Schalla
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5224
During 2010–11, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Texas Water Development Board, used hydrograph separation to quantify historical base flow at 11 USGS streamflow-gaging stations between water years 1966–2009 and streamflow gains and losses from two sets of synoptic measurements of streamflow and specific conductance (the first...
Monitoring floods and fires during the summer of 2011--The value of the Landsat satellite 40-year archives
Linda Owen
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3006
The summer of 2011 proved to be a season of extreme events. Heavy snowfall in the western mountains and excessive spring rains caused flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers; whereas extended dry conditions enabled fires to rage out of control from Alaska and Canada, south to Texas, Arizona, New...
St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center's Core Archive Portal
Chris Reich, Matt Streubert, Brendan Dwyer, Meg Godbout, Adis Muslic, Dan Umberger
2012, Data Series 626
This Web site contains information on rock cores archived at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC). Archived cores consist of 3- to 4-inch-diameter coral cores, 1- to 2-inch-diameter rock cores, and a few unlabeled loose coral and rock samples. This document - and...
Spatial patterns and temporal trends in mercury concentrations, precipitation depths, and mercury wet deposition in the North American Great Lakes region, 2002-2008
Martin R. Risch, David A. Gay, Kathleen K. Fowler, Gerard J. Keeler, Sean M. Backus, Pierrette Blanchard, James A. Barres, J. Timothy Dvonch
2012, Environmental Pollution (161) 261-271
Annual and weekly mercury (Hg) concentrations, precipitation depths, and Hg wet deposition in the Great Lakes region were analyzed by using data from 5 monitoring networks in the USA and Canada for a 2002-2008 study period. High-resolution maps of calculated annual data, 7-year mean data, and net interannual change for...
Evidence from 12-year study links ecosystem changes in the Gulf of Maine with climate change
George R. Aiken, Thomas G. Huntington, William Balch, David Drapeau, Bruce Bowler
2012, EcoSystem Indicator Partnership Journal
Investigators at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences (East Boothbay, Maine) and the U.S. Geological Survey collaborated to study ecosystem changes in the Gulf of Maine. As part of the Gulf of Maine North Atlantic Time Series (GNATS), a comprehensive long-term study of hydrographic, biological, optical and chemical properties,...
EarthExplorer
Treva Houska
2012, General Information Product 136
The EarthExplorer trifold provides basic information for on-line access to remotely-sensed data from the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center archive. The EarthExplorer (http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/) client/server interface allows users to search and download aerial photography, satellite data, elevation data, land-cover products, and digitized maps. Minimum computer system...
Watershed modeling applications in south Texas
Diana E. Pedraza, Darwin J. Ockerman
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3005
Watershed models can be used to simulate natural and human-altered processes including the flow of water and associated transport of sediment, chemicals, nutrients, and microbial organisms within a watershed. Simulation of these processes is useful for addressing a wide range of water-resource challenges, such as quantifying changes in water availability...
Mapping argillic and advanced argillic alteration in volcanic rocks, quartzites, and quartz arenites in the western Richfield 1° x 2 ° quadrangle, southwestern Utah, using ASTER satellite data
Barnaby W. Rockwell, Albert H. Hofstra
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1105
The Richfield quadrangle in southwestern Utah is known to contain a variety of porphyry Mo, skarn, polymetallic replacement and vein, alunite, and kaolin resources associated with 27-32 Ma calc-alkaline or 12-23 Ma bimodal volcano-plutonic centers in Neoproterozoic to Mesozoic carbonate and siliciclastic rocks. Four scenes of visible to shortwave-infrared image...
Preliminary evaluation of the shale gas prospectivity of the Lower Cretaceous Pearsall Formation in the onshore Gulf Coast region, United States
Catherine B. Enomoto, Kristina Scott, Brett J. Valentine, Paul C. Hackley, Kristin Dennen, Celeste D. Lohr
2012, Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions (62) 93-115
Recent work by the U.S. Geological Survey indicated that the Lower Cretaceous Pearsall Formation contains an estimated mean undiscovered, technically recoverable unconventional gas resource of 8.8 trillion cubic ft in the Maverick Basin, South Texas. Cumulative gas production from horizontal wells in the core area of the emerging play has...
Relationship between fish size and upper thermal tolerance
Matthew S. Recsetar, Matthew P. Zeigler, David L. Ward, Scott A. Bonar, Colleen A. Caldwell
2012, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (141) 1433-1438
Using critical thermal maximum (CTMax) tests, we examined the relationship between upper temperature tolerances and fish size (fry-adult or subadult lengths) of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (41-200-mm TL), Apache trout O. gilae apache (40-220-mm TL), largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides (72-266-mm TL), Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus (35-206-mm TL), channel catfish Ictalurus...
Divergence in morphology, but not habitat use, despite low genetic differentiation among insular populations of the lizard Anolis lemurinus in Honduras
M. L. Logan, Chad E. Montgomery, Scott M. Boback, Robert Reed, J. A. Campbell
2012, Journal of Tropical Ecology (28) 215-222
Studies of recently isolated populations are useful because observed differences can often be attributed to current environmental variation. Two populations of the lizard Anolis lemurinus have been isolated on the islands of Cayo Menor and Cayo Mayor in the Cayos Cochinos Archipelago of Honduras for less than 15 000 y. We...
Where eagles nest, the wind also blows: consolidating habitat and energy needs
J. Tack, Jim Wilson
2012, Report
Energy development is rapidly escalating in resource-rich Wyoming, and with it the risks posed to raptor populations. These risks are of increasing concern to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is responsible for protecting the persistence of protected species, including raptors. In support of a Federal mandate to protect...
Assessing long-term variations in sagebrush habitat: characterization of spatial extents and distribution patterns using multi-temporal satellite remote-sensing data
George Xian, Collin G. Homer, Cameron L. Aldridge
2012, International Journal of Remote Sensing (33) 2034-2058
An approach that can generate sagebrush habitat change estimates for monitoring large-area sagebrush ecosystems has been developed and tested in southwestern Wyoming, USA. This prototype method uses a satellite-based image change detection algorithm and regression models to estimate sub-pixel percentage cover for five sagebrush habitat components: bare ground, herbaceous, litter,...
Competition favors elk over beaver in a riparian willow ecosystem
B.W. Baker, H.R. Peinetti, M.C. Coughenour, T. L. Johnson
2012, Ecosphere (3) 1-15
Beaver (Castor spp.) conservation requires an understanding of their complex interactions with competing herbivores. Simulation modeling offers a controlled environment to examine long-term dynamics in ecosystems driven by uncontrollable variables. We used a new version of the SAVANNA ecosystem model to investigate beaver (C....
Translocation as a conservation tool for Agassiz's desert tortoises: survivorship, reproduction, and movements
K.E. Nussear, C.R. Tracy, P.A. Medica, D.S. Wilson, R.W. Marlow, P.S. Corn
2012, Journal of Wildlife Management (76) 1341-1353
We translocated 120 Agassiz's desert tortoises to 5 sites in Nevada and Utah to evaluate the effects of translocation on tortoise survivorship, reproduction, and habitat use. Translocation sites included several elevations, and extended to sites with vegetation assemblages not typically associated with desert tortoises in order to explore the possibility...
User Manual for SAHM package for VisTrails
C.B. Talbert, M.K. Talbert
2012, Report
The Software for Assisted Habitat I\•1odeling (SAHM) has been created to both expedite habitat modeling and help maintain a record of the various input data, pre-and post-processing steps and modeling options incorporated in the construction of a species distribution model. The four main advantages to using the combined VisTrail: SAHM...
The effect of size and competition on tree growth rate in old-growth coniferous forests
Adrian Das
2012, Canadian Journal of Forest Research (42) 1983-1995
Tree growth and competition play central roles in forest dynamics. Yet models of competition often neglect important variation in species-specific responses. Furthermore, functions used to model changes in growth rate with size do not always allow for potential complexity. Using a large data set from old-growth forests in California, models...
Impact assessment of extreme storm events using a Bayesian network
C. den Heijer, Dirk T.J.A. Knipping, Nathaniel G. Plant, Jaap S. M. van Thiel de Vries, Fedor Baart, Pieter H. A. J. M. van Gelder
2012, Conference Paper, Coastal Engineering 2012: Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Coastal Engineering
This paper describes an investigation on the usefulness of Bayesian Networks in the safety assessment of dune coasts. A network has been created that predicts the erosion volume based on hydraulic boundary conditions and a number of cross-shore profile indicators. Field measurement data along a large part of the Dutch...
Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) investigation
Kenneth S. Edgett, R. Aileen Yingst, Michael A. Ravine, Michael A. Caplinger, Justin N. Maki, F. Tony Ghaemi, Jacob A. Schaffner, James F. Bell III, Laurence J. Edwards, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, Ezat Heydari, Linda C. Kah, Mark T. Lemmon, Michelle E. Minitti, Timothy S. Olson, Timothy J. Parker, Scott K. Rowland, Juergen Schieber, Robert J. Sullivan, Dawn Y. Sumner, Peter C. Thomas, Elsa H. Jensen, John J. Simmonds, Aaron J. Sengstacken, Reg G. Wilson, Walter Goetz
2012, Space Science Reviews (170) 259-317
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) investigation will use a 2-megapixel color camera with a focusable macro lens aboard the rover, Curiosity, to investigate the stratigraphy and grain-scale texture, structure, mineralogy, and morphology of geologic materials in northwestern Gale crater. Of particular interest is the stratigraphic...
Selection of the Mars Science Laboratory landing site
M. Golombek, J. Grant, D. Kipp, A. Vasavada, Randolph L. Kirk, Robin L. Fergason, P. Bellutta, F. Calef, K. Larsen, Y. Katayama, A. Huertas, R. Beyer, A. Chen, T. Parker, B. Pollard, S. Lee, R. Hoover, H. Sladek, J. Grotzinger, R. Welch, E. Noe Dobrea, J. Michalski, M. Watkins
2012, Space Science Reviews (170) 641-737
The selection of Gale crater as the Mars Science Laboratory landing site took over five years, involved broad participation of the science community via five open workshops, and narrowed an initial >50 sites (25 by 20 km) to four finalists (Eberswalde, Gale, Holden and Mawrth) based on science and safety....
Status of rainbow smelt in U.S. waters of Lake Ontario, 2011
Brian Weidel, Michael J. Connerton
2012, Report, Status of important prey fishes in the U.S. Waters of Lake Ontario, 2011
Rainbow smelt Osmerus mordax are the second most abundant pelagic prey fish in Lake Ontario. The abundance and weight indices for Lake Ontario age-1 and older rainbow smelt declined in 2011 and represented a 64% and 54% decrease respectively from 2010 levels. Length frequency-based age analysis indicated that age-1 rainbow...
