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Acoustic telemetry was used to describe fish positions and marine habitat use by tagged bull trout Salvelinus confluentus from the Skagit River, Washington. In March and April 2006, 20 fish were captured and tagged in the lower Skagit River, while 15 fish from the Swinomish Channel were tagged during May...

Wildfire is the major disturbance in Mediterranean forests. Prescribed fire can be an alternative to reduce the amount of fuel and hence decrease the wildfire risk. However the effects of prescribed fire must be studied, especially on ash properties, because ash is an important nutrient source for ecosystem recovery. The...

Didymosphenia geminata (didymo) is a freshwater alga native to North America, including Glacier National Park, Montana. It has long been considered a cold-water species, but has recently spread to lower latitudes and warmer waters, and increasingly forms large blooms that cover streambeds. We used a comprehensive monitoring data set from...

Understanding daily movements of waterfowl is crucial to management of winter habitats, especially along the Gulf Coast where hunting pressure is high. Radio-telemetry was used to investigate movements of female Mallards (Anas platyrchychos) wintering in southwestern Louisiana. Movement distances were analyzed from 2,455 paired locations (diurnal and nocturnal) of 126...

The Johnson Creek Landslide is a translational slide in seaward-dipping Miocene siltstone and sandstone (Astoria Formation) and an overlying Quaternary marine terrace deposit. The basal slide plane slopes sub-parallel to the dip of the Miocene rocks, except beneath the back-tilted toe block, where it slopes inland. Rainfall events raise pore-water...

Contrary to conventional wisdom for shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum), we document shortnose sturgeon use of habitats beyond large rivers. Telemetry data from 2008 to 2010 in the Gulf of Maine demonstrates that adult shortnose sturgeon (up to 70%) frequently move between Maine’s two largest rivers, the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers....

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the relationships between the quantity, toxicity, and compositional profile of dioxin/furan compounds (PCDD/Fs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (DL-PCBs) in estuarine sediment and in the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus). Sediment and blue crab samples were collected in three small urban...

A detailed review was made of chemical indicators used to identify impacts from septic tanks on groundwater quality. Potential impacts from septic tank leachate on groundwater quality were assessed using the mass ratio of chloride–bromide (Cl/Br), concentrations of selected chemical constituents, and ancillary information (land use, census data, well...

No abstract available....

Eutrophication of reservoirs frequently occurs because of excessive nutrient inputs caused by anthropogenic activities, including row-crop agriculture. The trophic status of Fort Cobb Reservoir, Oklahoma, was assessed in April, July, and September 2006. The Fort Cobb Reservoir was highly eutrophic, with the greatest concentrations of nutrients and chlorophyll-a being measured...

The first advisory to limit consumption of Florida Bay fish due to mercury was issued in 1995. Studies done by others in the late 1990s found elevated water column concentrations of both total Hg (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) in creeks discharging from the Everglades, which had its own recognized mercury...

The Upper Mississippi River consists of 26 navigation pools that provide abundant habitat for a host of natural resources, such as fish, migratory waterfowl, non-game birds, deer, beaver, muskrats, snakes, reptiles, frogs, toads, salamanders, and many others. Of all the many different types of animals that depend on the river,...

Floods result in great human disasters globally and nationally, causing an average of $4 billion of damages each year in the United States. Minnesota has its share of floods and flood damages, and the state has awarded nearly $278 million to local units of government for flood mitigation projects through...

Water shortages in the southeastern United States have led to a need for more intensive management and usage of stormwater for beneficial uses such as irrigation. Harvesting of infiltrated stormwater from horizontal wells in sandy aquifer sediments beneath stormwater ponds has emerged as an alternative in need of evaluation. Cyanobacteria...

Within the first few decades of European-descended settlers arriving in Iowa, much of the land cover across the state was transformed from prairie and forest to farmland, patches of forest, and urbanized areas. Land cover change over the subsequent 126 years was minor in comparison. Between 1832 and 1859, the...

Interrelated environmental concerns about Chesapeake Bay are being addressed in an interdisciplinary project using paleoecological and geochemical records from sediment cores to investigate Holocene climate and human encroachment. The research is looking at interannual through millennial-scale variability of bay salinity, sediment accumulation, and dissolved oxygen, temperature, and faunal and floral...

Acquisition of ticks by bird hosts is a central process in the transmission cycles of many tick-borne zoonoses, but tick recruitment by birds has received little direct study. We documented acquisition of Ixodes scapularis Say on birds at Fire Island, NY, by removing ticks from mist-netted birds, and recording the number of...

Regional equations and procedures were developed for estimating seasonal 1-day 10-year, 7-day 10-year, and 30-day 5-year hydrologically based low-flow frequency values for unregulated streams in West Virginia. Regional equations and procedures also were developed for estimating the seasonal U.S. Environmental Protection Agency harmonic-mean flows and the 50-percent flow-duration values. The...

Dissolution has removed large volumes of rock at low-angle normal faults, i.e., detachment faults, in the Mormon Mountains and the Tule Springs Hills in the eastern Basin and Range Province, southeastern Nevada....

Sediments in Marshall and Hidden Lakes in the Uinta Mountains of northeastern Utah contain records of atmospheric mineral-dust deposition as revealed by differences in mineralogy and geochemistry of lake sediments relative to Precambrian clastic rocks in the watersheds. In cores spanning more than a thousand years, the largest changes in...

Northeastern Bristol Bay, Alaska, which includes three large estuaries, is used by multiple sea duck species during the annual cycle. Limited aerial surveys indicate that this area supports tens of thousands of king eiders and black scoters during spring migration and the autumn molt. Existing satellite telemetry data were used...

Operational procedures at U.S. Geological Survey gaging stations include periodic leveling checks to ensure that gages are accurately set to the established gage datum. Differential leveling techniques are used to determine elevations for reference marks, reference points, all gages, and the water surface. The techniques presented in this manual provide...

The techniques and standards for making discharge measurements at streamflow gaging stations are described in this publication. The vertical axis rotating-element current meter, principally the Price current meter, has been traditionally used for most measurements of discharge; however, advancements in acoustic technology have led to important developments in the use...

Stream and reservoir stage are critical parameters in the computation of stream discharge and reservoir volume, respectively. In addition, a record of stream stage is useful in the design of structures that may be affected by stream elevation, as well as for the planning for various uses of flood plains....

Approximately 25,000 new households and thousands of new jobs will be established in an area that extends from southwest to northeast of Baltimore, Maryland, as a result of the Federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, with consequent new demands on the water resources of the area. The U.S. Geological...