The major-ion composition of Cenozoic seawater: the past 36 million years from fluid inclusions in marine halite
Sean T. Brennan, Tim K. Lowenstein, Dioni I. Cendon
2013, American Journal of Science (313) 713-775
Fluid inclusions from ten Cenozoic (Eocene-Miocene) marine halites are used to quantify the major-ion composition (Mg2+, Ca2+, K+, Na+, SO42−, and Cl−) of seawater over the past 36 My. Criteria used to determine a seawater origin of the halites include: (1) stratigraphic, sedimentologic, and paleontologic observations; (2) Br− in halite;...
Estimated sediment thickness, quality, and toxicity to benthic organisms in selected impoundments in Massachusetts
Robert F. Breault, Jason R. Sorenson, Peter K. Weiskel
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5191
The U.S. Geological Survey and the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game, Division of Ecological Restoration, collaborated to collect baseline information on the quantity and quality of sediment impounded behind selected dams in Massachusetts, including sediment thickness and the occurrence of contaminants potentially toxic to benthic organisms. The thicknesses of...
Application of sediment characteristics and transport conditions to resource management in selected main-stem reaches of the Upper Colorado River, Colorado and Utah, 1965-2007
Cory A. Williams, Keelin R. Schaffrath, John G. Elliott, Rodney J. Richards
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5195
The Colorado River Basin provides habitat for 14 native fish, including 4 endangered species protected under the Federal Endangered Species Act of 1973. These endangered fish species once thrived in the Colorado River system, but water-resource development, including the building of numerous diversion dams and several large reservoirs, and the...
Sampling efficiency of the Moore egg collector
Thomas A. Worthington, Shannon K. Brewer, Timothy B. Grabowski, Julia Mueller
2013, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (33) 79-88
Quantitative studies focusing on the collection of semibuoyant fish eggs, which are associated with a pelagic broadcast-spawning reproductive strategy, are often conducted to evaluate reproductive success. Many of the fishes in this reproductive guild have suffered significant reductions in range and abundance. However, the efficiency of the sampling gear used...
Summary and interpretation of discrete and continuous water-quality monitoring data, Mattawoman Creek, Charles County, Maryland, 2000-11
Jeffrey G. Chanat, Cherie V. Miller, Joseph M. Bell, Brenda Feit Majedi, David P. Brower
2013, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5265
Discrete samples and continuous (15-minute interval) water-quality data were collected at Mattawoman Creek (U.S. Geological Survey station number 01658000) from October 2000 through January 2011, in cooperation with the Charles County (Maryland) Department of Planning and Growth Management, the Maryland Department of the Environment, and the Maryland Geological Survey. Mattawoman...
Movement mysteries unveiled: spatial ecology of juvenile green sea turtles
Donna J. Shaver, Kristen M. Hart, Ikuko Fujisaki, Cynthia Rubio, Autumn R. Sartain-Iverson
William I. Lutterschmidt, editor(s)
2013, Book chapter, Reptiles in research: investigations of ecology, physiology, and behavior from desert to sea
Locations of important foraging areas are not well defined for many marine species. Unraveling these mysteries is vital to develop conservation strategies for these species, many of which are threatened or endangered. Satellite-tracking is a tool that can reveal movement patterns at both broad and fine spatial scales, in all...
Final report and archive of the swath bathymetry and ancillary data collected in the Puerto Rico Trench region in 2002 and 2003
Uri S. ten Brink, William W. Danforth, Christopher F. Polloni
2013, Open-File Report 2006-1210
In 2002 and 2003, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), conducted three exploration cruises that mapped for the first time the morphology of the entire tectonic plate boundary stretching from the Dominican Republic in the west to the Lesser Antilles in...
Predicting thermal reference conditions for USA streams and rivers
Ryan A. Hill, Charles P. Hawkins, Daren M. Carlisle
2013, Freshwater Science (32) 39-55
Temperature is a primary driver of the structure and function of stream ecosystems. However, the lack of stream temperature (ST) data for the vast majority of streams and rivers severely compromises our ability to describe patterns of thermal variation among streams, test hypotheses regarding the effects of temperature on macroecological...
Approaches in highly parameterized inversion: bgaPEST, a Bayesian geostatistical approach implementation with PEST: documentation and instructions
Michael N. Fienen, Marco D'Oria, John E. Doherty, Randall J. Hunt
2013, Techniques and Methods 7-C9
The application bgaPEST is a highly parameterized inversion software package implementing the Bayesian Geostatistical Approach in a framework compatible with the parameter estimation suite PEST. Highly parameterized inversion refers to cases in which parameters are distributed in space or time and are correlated with one another. The Bayesian aspect of...
An automated digital imaging system for environmental monitoring applications
Rian Bogle, Miguel Velasco, John Vogel
2013, Open-File Report 2012-1271
Recent improvements in the affordability and availability of high-resolution digital cameras, data loggers, embedded computers, and radio/cellular modems have advanced the development of sophisticated automated systems for remote imaging. Researchers have successfully placed and operated automated digital cameras in remote locations and in extremes of temperature and humidity, ranging from...
Mississippi River streamflow measurement techniques at St. Louis, Missouri
Chester C. Wastson, Robert R. Holmes Jr., David S. Biedenham
2013, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (139) 1062-1070
Streamflow measurement techniques of the Mississippi River at St. Louis have changed through time (1866–present). In addition to different methods used for discrete streamflow measurements, the density and range of discrete measurements used to define the rating curve (stage versus streamflow) have also changed. Several authors have utilized published water...
Testing the use of microfossils to reconstruct great earthquakes at Cascadia
S. E. Engelhart, B. P Horton, Alan R. Nelson, A. D. Hawkes, Robert C. Witter, K. Wang, P.-L. Wang, C. H. Vane
2013, Geology (41) 1067-1070
Coastal stratigraphy from the Pacific Northwest of the United States contains evidence of sudden subsidence during ruptures of the Cascadia subduction zone. Transfer functions (empirical relationships between assemblages and elevation) can convert microfossil data into coastal subsidence estimates. Coseismic deformation models use the subsidence values to constrain earthquake magnitudes. To...
Status of a reconnaissance field study of the Susitna basin, 2011
Robert J. Gillis, Richard G. Stanley, David L. LePain, David J. Mauel, Trystan M. Herriott, Kenneth P. Helmold, C. Shaun Peterson, Marwan A. Wartes, Diane P. Shellenbaum
2013, Report
The Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS) and Alaska Division of Oil and Gas (DOG), in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) performed reconnaissance field studies for ten days in late June 2011, in the Susitna basin, directly north of Cook Inlet, south-central Alaska (fig. 1). The purpose of our...
Vegetation projections for Wind Cave National Park with three future climate scenarios: Final report in completion of Task Agreement J8W07100052
David A. King, Dominique M. Bachelet, Amy J. Symstad
2013, National Park Service Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/WICA/NRTRT--2013/681
Introduction The effects of climate change on the natural resources protected by Parks will likely be substantial, but geographically variable, due to local variation in climate trajectories and differences among ecosystems in their vulnerability to climate change. The projections of general circulation models (GCMs) indicate the possible magnitude and direction of...
Mount Rainier National Park and Olympic National Park elk monitoring program annual report 2011
Patricia J. Happe, Mason Reid, Paul C. Griffin, Kurt J. Jenkins, David J. Vales, Barbara J. Moeller, Michelle Tirhi, Scott McCorquodale
2013, Natural Resource Data Series NPS/NCCN/NRDS-2013/437
Fiscal year 2011 was the first year of implementing an approved elk monitoring protocol in Mount Rainier (MORA) and Olympic (OLYM) National Parks in the North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN) (Griffin et al. 2012). However, it was the fourth and second year of gathering data according to protocol in...
GEM Building Taxonomy (Version 2.0)
S. Brzev, C. Scawthorn, A.W. Charleson, L. Allen, M. Greene, Kishor Jaiswal, V. Silva
2013, GEM Technical Report 2013-02
This report documents the development and applications of the Building Taxonomy for the Global Earthquake Model (GEM). The purpose of the GEM Building Taxonomy is to describe and classify buildings in a uniform manner as a key step towards assessing their seismic risk, Criteria for development of the GEM Building...
Use and interpretation of climate envelope models: a practical guide
James I. Watling, Laura A. Brandt, Frank J. Mazzotti, Stephanie S. Romañach
2013, Report
This guidebook is intended to provide a practical overview of climate envelope modeling for conservation professionals and natural resource managers. The material is intended for people with little background or experience in climate envelope modeling who want to better understand and interpret models developed by others and the results generated...
Metadata for selecting or submitting generic seismic vulnerability functions via GEM's vulnerability database
Kishor Jaiswal
2013, Report
This memo lays out a procedure for the GEM software to offer an available vulnerability function for any acceptable set of attributes that the user specifies for a particular building category. The memo also provides general guidelines on how to submit the vulnerability or fragility functions to the GEM vulnerability...
Adaptive harvest management for the Svalbard population of pink-footed geese: briefing summary
Fred A. Johnson
2013, Report
The African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA; http://www.unep-aewa.org/) calls for means to manage populations which cause conflicts with certain human economic activities. The Svalbard population of the pink-footed goose has been selected as the first test case for such an international species management plan to be developed. This document describes progress to...
Status and trends monitoring of the mainstem Columbia River: sample frame development and review of programs relevant to the development of an integrated approach to monitoring
Timothy D. Counihan, Jill M. Hardiman, Stephen Waste
2013, PNAMP Report Series 2013-003
Implementing an Integrated Status and Trends Monitoring program (ISTM) for the mainstem Columbia River will help identify trends in important natural resources and help us understand the long-term collective effects of management actions. In this report, we present progress towards the completion of a stepwise process that will facilitate the...
User's guide and metadata for WestuRe: U.S. Pacific Coast estuary/watershed data and R tools
M.R. Frazier, D.A. Reusser, H. Lee II, L.M. McCoy, C. Brown, W. Nelson
2013, Report
Overview There are about 350 estuaries along the U.S. Pacific Coast (U.S. Fish andWildlife 2011). Basic descriptive data for these estuaries, such as their size and watershed area, are important for coastal-scale research and conservation planning. However, this information is spread among many sources, making it difficult to find and standardize....
Pheromonal bile acid 3-ketopetromyzonol sulfate primes the neuroendocrine system in sea lamprey
Yu-Wen Chung-Davidson, Huiyong Wang, Michael J. Siefkes, Mara B. Bryan, Hong Wu, Nicholas S. Johnson, Weiming Li
2013, BMC Neuroscience (14)
Background Vertebrate pheromones are known to prime the endocrine system, especially the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis. However, no known pheromone molecule has been shown to modulate directly the synthesis or release of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH), the main regulator of the HPG axis. We selected sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) as a model...
The geomorphic effectiveness of a large flood on the Rio Grande in the Big Bend region: insights on geomorphic controls and post-flood geomorphic response
David J. Dean, John C. Schmidt
2013, Geomorphology (201) 183-198
Since the 1940s, the Rio Grande in the Big Bend region has undergone long periods of channel narrowing, which have been occasionally interrupted by rare, large floods that widen the channel (termed a channel reset). The most recent channel reset occurred in 2008 following a 17-year period of extremely low...
Modeling trends from North American Breeding Bird Survey data: a spatially explicit approach
Florent Bled, John R. Sauer, Keith L. Pardieck, Paul Doherty, J. Andy Royle
2013, PLoS ONE (8)
Population trends, defined as interval-specific proportional changes in population size, are often used to help identify species of conservation interest. Efficient modeling of such trends depends on the consideration of the correlation of population changes with key spatial and environmental covariates. This can provide insights into causal mechanisms and allow...
Relationships between ecosystem metabolism, benthic macroinvertebrate densities, and environmental variables in a sub-arctic Alaskan river
Emily R. Benson, Mark S. Wipfli, Joanne E. Clapcott, Nicholas F. Hughes
2013, Hydrobiologia (701) 189-207
Relationships between environmental variables, ecosystem metabolism, and benthos are not well understood in sub-arctic ecosystems. The goal of this study was to investigate environmental drivers of river ecosystem metabolism and macroinvertebrate density in a sub-arctic river. We estimated primary production and respiration rates, sampled benthic macroinvertebrates, and monitored light intensity,...
