Empirical improvements for estimating earthquake response spectra with random‐vibration theory
David Boore, Eric M. Thompson
2012, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (102) 761-772
The stochastic method of ground‐motion simulation is often used in combination with the random‐vibration theory to directly compute ground‐motion intensity measures, thereby bypassing the more computationally intensive time‐domain simulations. Key to the application of random‐vibration theory to simulate response spectra is determining the duration (Drms) used in computing the root‐mean‐square...
Variation in spring harvest rates of male wild turkeys in New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania
Duane R. Diefenbach, Mary Jo Casalena, Michael V. Schiavone, Michael Reynolds, Robert Eriksen, Wendy C. Vreeland, Bryan L. Swift, Robert C. Boyd
2012, Journal of Wildlife Management (76) 514-522
Spring harvest rates of male wild turkeys (Meleagris gallapavo) influence the number and proportion of adult males in the population and turkey population models have treated harvest as additive to other sources of mortality. Therefore, hunting regulations and their effect on spring harvest rates have direct implications for hunter satisfaction....
Significance of rotating ground motions on nonlinear behavior of symmetric and asymmetric buildings in near fault sites
Erol Kalkan, Juan Carlos Reyes
2012, Book
Building codes in the U.S. require at least two horizontal ground motion components for three-dimensional (3D) response history analysis (RHA) of structures. For sites within 5 km of an active fault, these records should be rotated to fault-normal/fault-parallel (FN/FP) directions, and two RHA analyses should be performed separately (when FN...
Emerging prion disease drives host selection in a wildlife population
Stacie J. Robinson, Michael D. Samuel, Chad J. Johnson, Marie Adams, Debbie I. McKenzie
2012, Ecological Applications (22) 1050-1059
Infectious diseases are increasingly recognized as an important force driving population dynamics, conservation biology, and natural selection in wildlife populations. Infectious agents have been implicated in the decline of small or endangered populations and may act to constrain population size, distribution, growth rates, or migration patterns. Further, diseases may provide...
Population divergence and gene flow in an endangered and highly mobile seabird
A. J. Welch, R. C. Fleischer, H. F. James, A. E. Wiley, P. H. Ostrom, J. Adams, F. Duvall, N. Holmes, D. Hu, J. Penniman, K. A. Swindle
2012, Heredity (109) 19-28
Seabirds are highly vagile and can disperse up to thousands of kilometers, making it difficult to identify the factors that promote isolation between populations. The endemic Hawaiian petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis) is one such species. Today it is endangered, and known to breed only on the islands of Hawaii, Maui, Lanai...
Physical habitat, water quality, and riverine biological assemblages of selected reaches of the Sheyenne River, North Dakota, 2010
Robert F. Lundgren, Kathleen M. Rowland, Matthew J. Lindsay
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5178
In 2010, data on physical habitat, water quality, and riverine biological assemblages were collected at selected reaches in four locations (Kleven, Sheyenne, Cooperstown, and West Fargo) on the Sheyenne River in east-central North Dakota. Three of the locations (Kleven, Sheyenne, and Cooperstown) are above Baldhill Dam and one location (West...
Simulation of streamflow and the effects of brush management on water yields in the upper Guadalupe River watershed, south-central Texas, 1995-2010
Johnathan R. Bumgarner, Florence E. Thompson
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5051
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board and the Upper Guadalupe River Authority, developed and calibrated a Soil and Water Assessment Tool watershed model of the upper Guadalupe River watershed in south-central Texas to simulate streamflow and the effects of brush management...
Dependence of flow and transport through the Williamson River Delta, Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, on wind, river inflow, and lake elevation
Tamara M. Wood
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5004
The hydrodynamic model of Upper Klamath and Agency Lakes, Oregon, was used to run 384 realizations of a numerical tracer experiment in order to understand the relative effects of wind, lake elevation, and Williamson River inflow on flow and transport (the movement of water and passively transported constituents) through the...
Famous building stones of our Nation's capital
Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3044
The buildings of our Nation's Capital are constructed with rocks from quarries located throughout the United States and many distant lands. The earliest Government buildings, however, were constructed with stones from nearby sources because it was too difficult and expensive to move heavy materials such as stone any great distance...
Thermal profiles for selected river reaches of the Methow and Chewuch Rivers, Washington, August 2011
Andrew S. Gendaszek
2012, Data Series 682
Longitudinal profiles of near-streambed and near-surface temperatures were collected for selected reaches of the Methow and Chewuch Rivers, Washington, during August 2011 to facilitate development of a stream temperature model near the confluence of the Methow and Chewuch Rivers. Temperature was measured using a probe with an internal datalogger towed...
Comparison of two methods for estimating base flow in selected reaches of the South Platte River, Colorado
Joseph P. Capesius, L. Rick Arnold
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5034
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Colorado Water Conservation Board, compared two methods for estimating base flow in three reaches of the South Platte River between Denver and Kersey, Colorado. The two methods compared in this study are the Mass Balance and the Pilot Point methods. Base-flow estimates...
Modification of selected South Carolina bridge-scour envelope curves
Stephen T. Benedict, Andral W. Caldwell
2012, Scientific Investigations Report 2012-5029
Historic scour was investigated at 231 bridges in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain physiographic provinces of South Carolina by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the South Carolina Department of Transportation. These investigations led to the development of field-derived envelope curves that provided supplementary tools to assess the potential...
Characterizing mercury concentrations and fluxes in a Coastal Plain watershed: Insights from dynamic modeling and data
H.E. Golden, C.D. Knightes, P.A. Conrads, G. M. Davis, T.D. Feaster, C.A. Journey, S.T. Benedict, M. E. Brigham, P. M. Bradley
2012, Journal of Geophysical Research (117)
Mercury (Hg) is one of the leading water quality concerns in surface waters of the United States. Although watershed-scale Hg cycling research has increased in the past two decades, advances in modeling watershed Hg processes in diverse physiographic regions, spatial scales, and land cover types are needed. The goal of...
Heterogeneous detection probabilities for imperiled Missouri River fishes: implications for large-river monitoring programs
J.T. Schloesser, Craig P. Paukert, W.J. Doyle, Tracy D. Hill, K.D. Steffensen, Vincent H. Travnichek
2012, Endangered Species Research (16) 211-224
Occupancy modeling was used to determine (1) if detection probabilities (p) for 7 regionally imperiled Missouri River fishes (Scaphirhynchus albus, Scaphirhynchus platorynchus, Cycleptus elongatus, Sander canadensis, Macrhybopsis aestivalis, Macrhybopsis gelida, and Macrhybopsis meeki) differed among gear types (i.e. stationary gill nets, drifted trammel nets, and otter trawls), and (2) how...
Data collection and compilation for a geodatabase of groundwater, surface-water, water-quality, geophysical, and geologic data, Pecos County Region, Texas, 1930-2011
Daniel K. Pearson, Johnathan R. Bumgarner, Natalie A. Houston, Gregory P. Stanton, Andrew Teeple, Jonathan V. Thomas
2012, Data Series 678
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Middle Pecos Groundwater Conservation District, Pecos County, City of Fort Stockton, Brewster County, and Pecos County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1, compiled groundwater, surface-water, water-quality, geophysical, and geologic data for site locations in the Pecos County region, Texas, and developed a...
The role of fire-return interval and season of burn in snag dynamics in a south Florida slash pine forest
John D. Lloyd, Gary L. Slater, James R. Snyder
2012, Fire Ecology (8) 18-31
Standing dead trees, or snags, are an important habitat element for many animal species. In many ecosystems, fire is a primary driver of snag population dynamics because it can both create and consume snags. The objective of this study was to examine how variation in two key components of...
Life histories, salinity zones, and sublethal contributions of contaminants to pelagic fish declines illustrated with a case study of San Francisco Estuary, California, USA
Marjorie L. Brooks, Erica Fleishman, Larry R. Brown, Peggy W. Lehman, Inge Werner, Nathaniel Scholz, Carys Michelmore, James R. Loworn, Michael L. Johnson, Daniel Schlenk
2012, Estuaries and Coasts (35) 603-621
Human effects on estuaries are often associated with major decreases in abundance of aquatic species. However, remediation priorities are difficult to identify when declines result from multiple stressors with interacting sublethal effects. The San Francisco Estuary offers a useful case study of the potential role of contaminants in declines of...
Surface Mass Balance of the Columbia Glacier, Alaska, 1978 and 2010 Balance Years
Shad O’Neel
2012, Data Series 676
Although Columbia Glacier is one of the largest sources of glacier mass loss in Alaska, surface mass balance measurements are sparse, with only a single data set available from 1978. The dearth of surface mass-balance data prohibits partitioning of the total mass losses between dynamics and surface forcing; however, the...
Sea-level history during the Last Interglacial complex on San Nicolas Island, California: implications for glacial isostatic adjustment processes, paleozoogeography and tectonics
Daniel R. Muhs, Kathleen R. Simmons, R. Randall Schumann, Lindsey T. Groves, Jerry X. Mitrovica, Deanna Laurel
2012, Quaternary Science Reviews (37) 1-25
San Nicolas Island, California has one of the best records of fossiliferous Quaternary marine terraces in North America, with at least fourteen terraces rising to an elevation of ~270 m above present-day sea level. In our studies of the lowest terraces, we identified platforms at 38-36 m (terrace 2a), 33-28...
Bird-habitat relationships in interior Columbia Basin shrubsteppe
S.L. Earnst, A.L. Holmes
2012, The Condor (114) 15-29
Vegetation structure is considered an important habitat feature structuring avian communities. In the sagebrush biome, both remotely-sensed and field-acquired measures of big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) cover have proven valuable in understanding avian abundance. Differences in structure between the exotic annual cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and native bunchgrasses are also expected to...
Watershed scale response to climate change--Black Earth Creek Basin, Wisconsin
Randall J. Hunt, John F. Walker, Steven M. Westenbroek, Lauren E. Hay, Steven L. Markstrom
2012, Fact Sheet 2011-3129
General Circulation Model simulations of future climate through 2099 project a wide range of possible scenarios. To determine the sensitivity and potential effect of long-term climate change on the freshwater resources of the United States, the U.S. Geological Survey Global Change study, "An integrated watershed scale response to global change...
Watershed scale response to climate change--Cathance Stream Basin, Maine
Robert W. Dudley, Lauren E. Hay, Steven L. Markstrom, Glenn A. Hodgkins
2012, Fact Sheet 2011-3128
General Circulation Model simulations of future climate through 2099 project a wide range of possible scenarios. To determine the sensitivity and potential effect of long-term climate change on the freshwater resources of the United States, the U.S. Geological Survey Global Change study, "An integrated watershed scale response to global change...
Watershed scale response to climate change--Clear Creek Basin, Iowa
Daniel E. Christiansen, Lauren E. Hay, Steven L. Markstrom
2012, Fact Sheet 2011-3127
General Circulation Model simulations of future climate through 2099 project a wide range of possible scenarios. To determine the sensitivity and potential effect of long-term climate change on the freshwater resources of the United States, the U.S. Geological Survey Global Change study, "An integrated watershed scale response to global change...
Watershed scale response to climate change--East River Basin, Colorado
William A. Battaglin, Lauren E. Hay, Steven L. Markstrom
2012, Fact Sheet 2011-3126
General Circulation Model simulations of future climate through 2099 project a wide range of possible scenarios. To determine the sensitivity and potential effect of long-term climate change on the freshwater resources of the United States, the U.S. Geological Survey Global Change study, "An integrated watershed scale response to global change...
Watershed scale response to climate change--Feather River Basin, California
Kathryn M. Koczot, Steven L. Markstrom, Lauren E. Hay
2012, Fact Sheet 2011-3125
General Circulation Model simulations of future climate through 2099 project a wide range of possible scenarios. To determine the sensitivity and potential effect of long-term climate change on the freshwater resources of the United States, the U.S. Geological Survey Global Change study, "An integrated watershed scale response to global change...
