Assessing hypotheses about nesting site occupancy dynamics
Florent Bled, J. Andrew Royle, Emmanuelle Cam
2011, Ecology (92) 938-951
Hypotheses about habitat selection developed in the evolutionary ecology framework assume that individuals, under some conditions, select breeding habitat based on expected fitness in different habitat. The relationship between habitat quality and fitness may be reflected by breeding success of individuals, which may in turn be used to assess habitat...
Assessing open-system behavior of 14C in terrestrial gastropod shells
Jason A. Rech, Jeffrey S. Pigati, Sophie B. Lehmann, Chelsea N. McGimpsey, David A. Grimley, Jeffrey C. Nekola
2011, Radiocarbon (53) 325-335
In order to assess open-system behavior of radiocarbon in fossil gastropod shells, we measured the 14C activity on 10 aliquots of shell material recovered from Illinoian (~190–130 ka) and pre-Illinoian (~800 ka) loess and lacustrine deposits in the Midwestern USA. Eight of the 10 aliquots yielded measurable 14C activities that...
Assessing power of large river fish monitoring programs to detect population changes: the Missouri River sturgeon example
M. L. Wildhaber, S. H. Holan, J.L. Bryan, D. W. Gladish, M. Ellersieck
2011, Journal of Applied Ichthyology (27) 282-290
In 2003, the US Army Corps of Engineers initiated the Pallid Sturgeon Population Assessment Program (PSPAP) to monitor pallid sturgeon and the fish community of the Missouri River. The power analysis of PSPAP presented here was conducted to guide sampling design and effort decisions. The PSPAP sampling design has a...
Appropriate uses and considerations for online surveying in human dimensions research
Natalie R. Sexton, Holly M. Miller, Alia M. Dietsch
2011, Human Dimensions of Wildlife (16) 154-163
Online surveying has gained attention in recent years for its applicability to human dimensions research as an efficient and inexpensive data-collection method; however, online surveying is not a panacea. In this article, we provide some guidelines for alleviating or avoiding the criticisms and pitfalls suggested of online survey methods and...
Near-field receiving water monitoring of trace metals and a benthic community near the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant in South San Francisco Bay, California: 2010
Jessica Dyke, Francis Parcheso, Janet K. Thompson, Daniel J. Cain, Samuel N. Luoma, Michelle I. Hornberger
2011, Open-File Report 2011-1163
Trace-metal concentrations in sediment and in the clam Macoma petalum (formerly reported as Macoma balthica), clam reproductive activity, and benthic macroinvertebrate community structure were investigated in a mudflat 1 kilometer south of the discharge of the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant (PARWQCP) in South San Francisco Bay, Calif. This report includes...
A water-budget model and assessment of groundwater recharge for the Island of Hawai'i
John A. Engott
2011, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5078
Concern surrounding increasing demand for groundwater on the Island of Hawaiʻi, caused by a growing population and an increasing reliance on groundwater as a source for municipal and private water systems, has prompted a study of groundwater recharge on the island using the most current data and accepted methods. For...
Application of MODFLOW for oil reservoir simulation during the Deepwater Horizon Crisis
Paul A. Hsieh
2011, Ground Water (49) 319-323
When the Macondo well was shut in on July 15, 2010, the shut-in pressure recovered to a level that indicated the possibility of oil leakage out of the well casing into the surrounding formation. Such a leak could initiate a hydraulic fracture that might eventually breach the seafloor, resulting in...
Detection, emission estimation and risk prediction of forest fires in China using satellite sensors and simulation models in the past three decades-An overview
Jiahua Zhang, Fengmei Yao, Cheng Liu, Limin Yang, Vijendra K. Boken
2011, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (8) 3156-3178
Forest fires have major impact on ecosystems and greatly impact the amount of greenhouse gases and aerosols in the atmosphere. This paper presents an overview in the forest fire detection, emission estimation, and fire risk prediction in China using satellite imagery, climate data, and various simulation models over the past...
Antigenic profiling of Yersinia pestis infection in the Wyoming coyote (Canis latrans)
G. Vernati, W.H. Edwards, Tonie E. Rocke, S.F. Little, G.P. Andrews
2011, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (47) 21-29
Although Yersinia pestis is classified as a "high-virulence" pathogen, some host species are variably susceptible to disease. Coyotes (Canis latrans) exhibit mild, if any, symptoms during infection, but antibody production occurs postinfection. This immune response has been reported to be against the F1 capsule, although little subsequent characterization has been...
Anthropocene streams and base-level controls from historic dams in the unglaciated mid-Atlantic region, USA
Dorothy Merritts, Robert Walter, Michael Rahnis, Jeff Hartranft, Scott Cox, Allen Gellis, Noel Potter, William Hilgartner, Michael J. Langland, Lauren Manion, Caitlin Lippincott, Sauleh Siddiqui, Zain Rehman, Chris Scheid, Laura Kratz, Andrea Shilling, Matthew Jenschke, Katherine Datin, Elizabeth Cranmer, Austin Reed, Derek Matuszewski, Mark Voli, Erik Ohlson, Ali Neugebauer, Aakash Ahamed, Conor Neal, Allison Winter, Steven Becker
2011, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences (369) 976-1009
Recently, widespread valley-bottom damming for water power was identified as a primary control on valley sedimentation in the mid-Atlantic US during the late seventeenth to early twentieth century. The timing of damming coincided with that of accelerated upland erosion during post-European settlement land-use change. In this paper, we examine the...
Anatomy of a metabentonite: Nucleation and growth of illite crystals and their coalescence into mixed-layer illite/smectite
D. D. Eberl, A.E. Blum, M. Serravezza
2011, American Mineralogist (96) 586-593
The illite layer content of mixed-layer illite/smectite (I/S) in a 2.5 m thick, zoned, metabentonite bed from Montana decreases regularly from the edges to the center of the bed. Traditional X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern modeling using Markovian statistics indicated that this zonation results from a mixing in different proportions of...
Probability and volume of potential postwildfire debris flows in the 2011 Monument burn area, southeastern Arizona
Barbara C. Ruddy, Kristine L. Verdin
2011, Open-File Report 2011-1181
This report presents a preliminary emergency assessment of the debris-flow hazards from drainage basins burned by the Monument wildfire in southeastern Arizona, in 2011. Empirical models derived from statistical evaluation of data collected from recently burned drainage basins throughout the intermountain Western United States were used to estimate the probability...
Growth anomalies on the coral genera Acropora and Porites are strongly associated with host density and human population size across the Indo-Pacific
Greta S. Aeby, Gareth J. Williams, Erik C. Franklin, Jessica Haapkyla, C. Drew Harvell, Stephen Neale, Cathie A. Page, Laurie Raymundo, Bernardo Vargas-Angel, Bette L. Willis, Thierry M. Work, Simon K. Davy
2011, PLoS ONE (6)
Growth anomalies (GAs) are common, tumor-like diseases that can cause significant morbidity and decreased fecundity in the major Indo-Pacific reef-building coral genera, Acropora and Porites. GAs are unusually tractable for testing hypotheses about drivers of coral disease because of their pan-Pacific distributions, relatively high occurrence, and unambiguous ease of identification....
An adaptive-management framework for optimal control of hiking near golden eagle nests in Denali National Park
Julien Martin, Paul L. Fackler, James D. Nichols, Michael C. Runge, Carol L. McIntyre, Bruce L. Lubow, Maggie C. McCluskie, Joel A. Schmutz
2011, Conservation Biology (25) 316-323
Unintended effects of recreational activities in protected areas are of growing concern. We used an adaptive-management framework to develop guidelines for optimally managing hiking activities to maintain desired levels of territory occupancy and reproductive success of Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) in Denali National Park (Alaska, U.S.A.). The management decision was...
Carbon dioxide fluid-flow modeling and injectivity calculations
Lauri Burke
2011, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5083
At present, the literature lacks a geologic-based assessment methodology for numerically estimating injectivity, lateral migration, and subsequent long-term containment of supercritical carbon dioxide that has undergone geologic sequestration into subsurface formations. This study provides a method for and quantification of first-order approximations for the time scale of supercritical carbon dioxide...
Summary of juvenile salmonid passage and survival at McNary Dam-Acoustic survival studies, 2006-09
Noah S. Adams, Scott D. Evans
2011, Open-File Report 2011-1179
Passage and survival data were collected at McNary Dam between 2006 and 2009. These data have provided critical information for resource managers to implement structural and operational changes designed to improve the survival of juvenile salmonids as they migrate past the dam. Given the importance of these annual studies, the...
Precipitation and runoff simulations of select perennial and ephemeral watersheds in the middle Carson River basin, Eagle, Dayton, and Churchill Valleys, west-central Nevada
Anne E. Jeton, Douglas K. Maurer
2011, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5066
The effect that land use may have on streamflow in the Carson River, and ultimately its impact on downstream users can be evaluated by simulating precipitation-runoff processes and estimating groundwater inflow in the middle Carson River in west-central Nevada. To address these concerns, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with...
MODPATH-LGR; documentation of a computer program for particle tracking in shared-node locally refined grids by using MODFLOW-LGR
Jesse E. Dickinson, R. T. Hanson, Steffen W. Mehl, Mary C. Hill
2011, Techniques and Methods 6-A38
The computer program described in this report, MODPATH-LGR, is designed to allow simulation of particle tracking in locally refined grids. The locally refined grids are simulated by using MODFLOW-LGR, which is based on MODFLOW-2005, the three-dimensional groundwater-flow model published by the U.S. Geological Survey. The documentation includes brief descriptions of...
Development of a high-resolution binational vegetation map of the Santa Cruz River riparian corridor and surrounding watershed, southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico
Cynthia S.A. Wallace, Miguel L. Villarreal, Laura M. Norman
2011, Open-File Report 2011-1143
This report summarizes the development of a binational vegetation map developed for the Santa Cruz Watershed, which straddles the southern border of Arizona and the northern border of Sonora, Mexico. The map was created as an environmental input to the Santa Cruz Watershed Ecosystem Portfolio Model (SCWEPM) that is being...
Hypolimnetic dissolved-oxygen dynamics within selected White River reservoirs, northern Arkansas-southern Missouri, 1974-2008
Jeanne L. De Lanois, W. Reed Green
2011, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5090
Dissolved oxygen is a critical constituent in reservoirs and lakes because it is essential for metabolism by all aerobic aquatic organisms. In general, hypolimnetic temperature and dissolved-oxygen concentrations vary from summer to summer in reservoirs, more so than in natural lakes, largely in response to the magnitude of flow into...
Development of a precipitation-runoff model to simulate unregulated streamflow in the South Fork Flathead River Basin, Montana
K.J. Chase
2011, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5095
This report documents the development of a precipitation-runoff model for the South Fork Flathead River Basin, Mont. The Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System model, developed in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation, can be used to simulate daily mean unregulated streamflow upstream and downstream from Hungry Horse Reservoir for water-resources planning. Two...
Geology and geochemistry of volcanic centers within the eastern half of the Sonoma volcanic field, northern San Francisco Bay region, California
Donald S. Sweetkind, James J. Rytuba, Victoria E. Langenheim, Robert J. Fleck
2011, Geosphere (7) 629-657
Volcanic rocks in the Sonoma volcanic field in the northern California Coast Ranges contain heterogeneous assemblages of a variety of compositionally diverse volcanic rocks. We have used field mapping, new and existing age determinations, and 343 new major and trace element analyses of whole-rock samples...
Pockmarks: Self-scouring seep features?
Laura L. Brothers, Joseph T. Kelley, Daniel F. Belknap, Walter A. Barnhardt, Peter O. Koons
2011, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Gas Hydrates
Pockmarks, or seafloor craters, occur worldwide in a variety of geologic settings and are often associated with fluid discharge. The mechanisms responsible for pockmark preservation, and pockmarks? relation to active methane venting are not well constrained. Simple numerical simulations run in 2-and 3-dimensions, and corroborated by flume tank experiments, indicate...
A petroleum system model for gas hydrate deposits in northern Alaska
T.D. Lorenson, Timothy S. Collett, Florence L. Wong
2011, Conference Paper
Gas hydrate deposits are common on the North Slope of Alaska around Prudhoe Bay, however the extent of these deposits is unknown outside of this area. As part of a United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) gas hydrate research collaboration, well cutting and mud...
Evidence and biogeochemical implications for glacially-derived sediments in an active margin cold seep
John W. Pohlman, Michael Riedel, Ivana Novosel, James E. Bauer, Elizabeth A. Canuel, Charles K. Paull, Richard B. Coffin, Kenneth S. Grabowski, David L. Knies, Roy D. Hyndman, George D. Spence
2011, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Gas Hydrates (ICGH 2011)
Delineating sediment organic matter origins and sediment accumulation rates at gas hydratebearing and hydrocarbon seeps is complicated by the microbial transfer of 13C-depleted and 14Cdepleted methane carbon into sedimentary pools. Sediment 13C and 14C measurements from four cores recovered at Bullseye vent on the northern Cascadia margin are used to...
