Development of new information to inform fish passage decisions at the Yale and Merwin hydro projects on the Lewis River, Washington—Final report, 2018
Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Christopher L. Clark, Mark H. Sorel, David A. Beauchamp
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1190
The reintroduction of extirpated salmonids to historically occupied areas is becoming increasingly common as a conservation and recovery strategy. Often, reintroductions are implemented after the factors that originally led to species extirpation have been reduced, eliminated, or mitigated. For anadromous Oncorhynchus spp. (Pacific salmon) and O. mykiss (steelhead), addressing barriers...
Ecosystem responses to elevated CO2 using airborne remote sensing at Mammoth Mountain, California
Kerry Cawse-Nicholson, Joshua B. Fisher, Caroline A. Famiglietti, Amy Braverman, Florian M. Schwandner, Jennifer L. Lewicki, Philip A. Townsend, David S. Schimel, Ryan Pavlick, Kathryn J. Bormann, Antonio Ferraz, Emily L. Kang, Pulong Ma, Robert R. Bogue, Thomas Youmans, David C. Pieri
2018, Biogeosciences (15) 7403-7418
We present an exploratory study examining the use of airborne remote-sensing observations to detect ecological responses to elevated CO2emissions from active volcanic systems. To evaluate these ecosystem responses, existing spectroscopic, thermal, and lidar data acquired over forest ecosystems on Mammoth Mountain volcano, California, were exploited, along with in situ measurements...
Lithostratigraphic framework in boreholes from Goldstone Lake and Nelson Lake Basins, Fort Irwin, California
David C. Buesch
David C. Buesch, editor(s)
2018, Open-File Report 2013-1024-D
In 2011 and 2012, the sedimentary basins in the Fort Irwin National Training Center, California, were evaluated for groundwater resources using a variety of techniques, including drilling of boreholes. This study summarizes lithostratigraphic features and deposits in 8 of 10 boreholes drilled in 2 basins located in the western part...
Quantifying uncertainty in simulated streamflow and runoff from a continental-scale monthly water balance model
Andrew R. Bock, William H. Farmer, Lauren E. Hay
2018, Advances in Water Resources (122) 166-175
One important component of continental-scale hydrologic modeling is quantifying the level of uncertainty in long-term hydrologic simulations and providing a range of possible simulated streamflow and/or runoff values for gaged and ungaged locations. In this paper, uncertainty was quantified for simulated streamflow and runoff generated from a monthly water balance...
Cenozoic geology of Fort Irwin and vicinity, California
David C. Buesch, David M. Miller, Christopher M. Menges
David C. Buesch, editor(s)
2018, Open-File Report 2013-1024-C
The geology of the Fort Irwin National Training Center in the north-central Mojave Desert, California, provides insights into the hydrology and water resources of the area. The Fort Irwin area is underlain by rocks ranging in age from Proterozoic to Quaternary that have been deformed by faults as young as...
Southern Great Plains Rapid Ecoregional Assessment—Volume II. Species and assemblages
Gordon C. Reese, Natasha B. Carr, Lucy E. Burris
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1109
The Southern Great Plains Rapid Ecoregional Assessment was conducted in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative. The overall goal of the Rapid Ecoregional Assessments (REAs) is to compile and synthesize regional datasets to facilitate evaluation of the cumulative effects of change...
Hydrogeologic framework for characterization and occurrence of confined and unconfined aquifers in quaternary sediments in the glaciated conterminous United States—A digital map compilation and database
Adel E. Haj, David R. Soller, James E. Reddy, Leon J. Kauffman, Richard M. Yager, Cheryl A. Buchwald
2018, Data Series 1090
The U.S. Geological Survey has created a hydrogeologic framework for Quaternary sediments in glaciated areas of the conterminous United States that categorizes, maps, and characterizes the glacial sediments at and beneath the land surface. The hydrogeologic framework divides the glaciated United States into 17 distinct hydrogeologic terranes using a geologic...
The Connecticut Streamflow and Sustainable Water Use Estimator—A decision-support tool to estimate water availability at ungaged stream locations in Connecticut
Sara B. Levin, Scott A. Olson, Martha G. Nielsen, Gregory E. Granato
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5135
Freshwater streams in Connecticut are subject to many competing demands, including public water supply; agricultural, commercial, and industrial water use; and ecosystem and habitat needs. In recent years, drought has further stressed Connecticut’s water resources. To sustainably allocate and manage water resources among these competing uses, Federal, State, and local...
User guide for the Connecticut Streamflow and Sustainable Water Use Estimator (CT SSWUE—version 1.0) computer program
Gregory E. Granato, Sara B. Levin
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1163
This report is a user guide for the Connecticut Streamflow and Sustainable Water Use Estimator (CT SSWUE) computer program (version 1.0). The CT SSWUE was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to provide a planning-level decision-support tool designed to...
Vegetative and geomorphic complexity at tributary junctions on the Colorado and Dolores Rivers: a blueprint for riparian restoration
Margaret S. White, Brian G. Tavernia, Patrick B. Shafroth, Teresa B. Chapman, John S. Sanderson
2018, Landscape Ecology (33) 2205-2220
ContextHabitat complexity in rivers is linked to dynamic fluvial conditions acting at various spatial scales. On regulated rivers in the western United States, tributaries are regions of high energy and disturbance, providing important resource inputs for riparian ecosystems.ObjectivesThis study investigated...
Hydrologic controls of methane dynamics in karst subterranean estuaries
David Brankovits, John W. Pohlman, Neil K. Ganju, T.M. Iliffe, N. Lowell, E. Roth, S.P. Sylva, J.A. Emmert, L. L. Lapham
2018, Global Biogeochemical Cycles (32) 1759-1775
Karst subterranean estuaries (KSEs) extend into carbonate platforms along 12% of all coastlines. A recent study has shown that microbial methane (CH4) consumption is an important component of the carbon cycle and food web dynamics within flooded caves that permeate KSEs. In this study, we obtained high‐resolution (~2.5‐day) temporal records...
Book review: Analytical groundwater mechanics
Randall J. Hunt
2018, Groundwater (57) 85-85
Encapsulating almost 50 years of experience applying mathematics to groundwater flow problems, this latest textbook from Otto Strack (2017) is a tour de force for analytical groundwater approaches. It is comprised of 10 chapters, spanning topics from the basics of groundwater mechanics, to steady state, three‐dimensional,...
Accuracies achieved in classifying five leading world crop types and their growth stages using optimal Earth Observing-1 Hyperion hyperspectral narrowbands on Google Earth Engine
Itiya Aneece, Prasad S. Thenkabail
2018, Remote Sensing (10) 1-29
As the global population increases, we face increasing demand for food and nutrition. Remote sensing can help monitor food availability to assess global food security rapidly and accurately enough to inform decision-making. However, advances in remote sensing technology are still often limited to multispectral broadband sensors. Although these sensors have...
Indicators of ecosystem structure and function for the Upper Mississippi River System
Nathan R. De Jager, James T. Rogala, Jason J. Rohweder, Molly Van Appledorn, Kristen L. Bouska, Jeffrey N. Houser, Kathi Jo Jankowski
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1143
This report documents the development of quantitative measures (indicators) of ecosystem structure and function for use in a Habitat Needs Assessment (HNA) for the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS). HNAs are led periodically by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program, which is the primary...
Best practices for elevation-based assessments of sea-level rise and coastal flooding exposure
Dean B. Gesch
2018, Frontiers in Earth Science (6) 1-19
Elevation data are critical for assessments of sea-level rise (SLR) and coastal flooding exposure. Previous research has demonstrated that the quality of data used in elevation-based assessments must be well understood and applied to properly model potential impacts. The cumulative vertical uncertainty of the input elevation data substantially controls the...
Communicating information on nature-related topics: Preferred information channels and trust in sources
Emily J. Wilkins, Holly M. Miller, Elizabeth Tilak, Rudy Schuster
2018, PLoS ONE (13)
How information is communicated influences the public’s environmental perceptions and behaviors. Information channels and sources both play an important role in the dissemination of information. Trust in a source is often used as a proxy for whether a particular piece of information is credible. To determine...
Identification of bees in southwest Idaho—A guide for beginners
Emily R. Sun, David S. Pilliod
2018, Circular 1448
This document was prepared to help scientists and the public, both of whom may not be familiar with bee taxonomy, learn how to practically identify bees in sagebrush steppe and shrubland habitats in southwest Idaho. We provide information to identify bees to the level of family and genus. A tentative...
Observer-free experimental evaluation of habitat and distance effects on the detection of anuran and bird vocalizations
Andrew R. MacLaren, Paul S. Crump, J. Andrew Royle, Michael R. J. Forstner
2018, Ecology and Evolution (8) 12991-13003
Acoustic surveys of vocalizing animals are conducted to determine density, distribution, and diversity. Acoustic surveys are traditionally performed by human listeners, but automated recording devices (ARD) are becoming increasingly popular. Signal strength decays, or attenuates, with increasing distance between source and receiver and some habitat types may differentially increase attenuation...
The metabolic regimes of 356 rivers in the United States
Alison P. Appling, Jordan S. Read, Luke A. Winslow, Maite Arroita, Emily S. Bernhardt, Natalie A. Griffiths, Robert O. Hall Jr., Judson W. Harvey, James B. Heffernan, Emily H. Stanley, Edward G. Stets, Charles B. Yackulic
2018, Scientific Data (5)
A national-scale quantification of metabolic energy flow in streams and rivers can improve understanding of the temporal dynamics of in-stream activity, links between energy cycling and ecosystem services, and the effects of human activities on aquatic metabolism. The two dominant terms in aquatic metabolism, gross primary production (GPP) and aerobic...
Crop water productivity estimation with hyperspectral remote sensing
Michael Marshall, Itiya P. Aneece, Daniel Foley, Cai Xueliang, Trent Biggs
2018, Book chapter, Hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation: Advanced applications in remote Sensing of agricultural crops and natural vegetation
Crop water productivity (CWP) is the ratio of accumulated crop biomass or yield (Y) to the water utilized to produce it, which is typically estimated using transpiration (ETC). CWP is an important metric to test and monitor water-saving strategies in agroecosystems across the globe. Red and near-infrared broadbands have been...
Agricultural conservation practice implementation in the Chesapeake Bay watershed supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
W. Dean Hively, Olivia H. Devereux, Jennifer L. D. Keisman
2018, Data Series 1102
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides cost-share funding and technical assistance to support the implementation of agricultural conservation practices on farms throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Conservation implementation has been substantial in the time period for which digital records are available (from 2007 through 2017). Farmer participation in USDA...
Root endophytes and invasiveness: no difference between native and non‐native Phragmites in the Great Lakes Region
Wesley A. Bickford, Deborah E. Goldberg, Kurt P. Kowalski, Donald R. Zak
2018, Ecosphere (9) 1-14
Microbial interactions could play an important role in plant invasions. If invasive plants associate with relatively more mutualists or fewer pathogens than their native counterparts, then microbial communities could foster plant invasiveness. Studies examining the effects of microbes on invasive plants commonly focus on a single microbial group (e.g., bacteria)...
U-Pb geochronology and tectonic implications of a Silurian ash in the Farewell Terrane, Alaska
Dwight Bradley, Julie A. Dumoulin, Dan B. Bradley
Julie A. Dumoulin, editor(s)
2018, Professional Paper 1814-F
The Farewell terrane is an exotic continental fragment in interior Alaska that during the early Paleozoic was the site of a passive margin. We report a 238U/206Pb zircon age of 432.9±3.0 Ma from a Farewell terrane ash in Mt. McKinley quadrangle, Alaska. This age overlaps with prominent detrital zircon age...
Analysis ready data: Enabling analysis of the Landsat archive
John L. Dwyer, David P. Roy, Brian Sauer, Calli B. Jenkerson, Hankui K. Zhang, Leo Lymburner
2018, Remote Sensing (10)
Data that have been processed to allow analysis with a minimum of additional user effort are often referred to as Analysis Ready Data (ARD). The ability...
Building back bigger in hurricane strike zones
Eli D. Lazarus, Patrick W. Limber, Evan B. Goldstein, Rosie Dodd, Scott B. Armstrong
2018, Nature Sustainability (1) 759-762
Despite decades of regulatory efforts in the United States to decrease vulnerability in developed coastal zones, exposure of residential assets to hurricane damage is increasing — even in places where hurricanes have struck before. Comparing plan-view footprints of individual residential buildings before and long after major hurricane strikes, we find...
