A proposed seismic velocity profile database model
Shamsher Sadiq, Okan Ilkan, Sean K Ahdi, Yousef Bozorgina, Youssef M.A. Hashash, Dong Youp Kwak, Duhee Park, Alan Yong, Jonathan P. Stewart
2018, Conference Paper
We describe the data model that we intend to use in a publicly available site profile database under development for the United States. The initial implementation of the database contains data from California. Currently, our prototype data model consists of JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format files for storing metadata and...
Comparing growth and body condition of indoor-reared, outdoor-reared, and direct-released juvenile Mojave desert tortoises
J. A. Daly, K. A. Buhlman, B. D. Todd, Clinton T. Moore, J. M. Peaden, T. D. Tuberville
2018, Herpetological Conservation and Biology (13) 622-633
Desert tortoise populations have declined, and head-starting hatchlings in captivity until they are larger and older — and presumably more likely to survive — is one strategy being evaluated for species recovery. Previous studies have reared hatchlings in outdoor, predator-proof pens for 5–9 years before release, in efforts to produce...
A geophysical characterization of the structural framework of the Camas Prairie Geothermal System, southcentral Idaho
Jonathan M.G. Glen, Lee Liberty, Jared R. Peacock, Erika Gasperikova, Tait E. Earney, William D. Schermerhorn, Drew L. Siler, John Shervais, Patrick Dobson
2018, Conference Paper, Geothermal's role in today's energy market
Play Fairway Analysis methods, utilizing existing geologic, thermal, geochemical, and geophysical data were employed in an initial assessment of geothermal resources in the Snake River Plain. These efforts identified the Camas Prairie in southcentral Idaho as a region with elevated resource potential. Subsequent efforts included structural and geophysical data collection...
Geothermal potential of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon: Evidence from detailed geophysical investigations
Brent Ritzinger, Jonathan M.G. Glen, Jared R. Peacock, Richard J. Blakely, Patrick Mills, Lydia M. Staisch, Scott E.K. Bennett, Brian Sherrod
2018, Conference Paper, Geothermal's role in today's energy market
Recent geologic and geophysical investigations were undertaken in northeastern Oregon to better assess earthquake hazards in the region and determine relative favorability for geothermal energy development on lands of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). This work was funded in part by a Bureau of Indian Affairs...
Effects of rearing environment on behavior of captive-reared whooping cranes
Christy L. Sadowski, Glenn H. Olsen, M. Elsbeth McPhee
2018, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the fourteenth North American Crane Workshop
Whooping cranes (Grus americana) are 1 of the most endangered bird species in North America. In 1999 the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership was formed to establish a migratory population of whooping cranes in eastern North America. These efforts have been extremely successful in terms of adult survival but reproductive success...
Estimating metal concentrations with regression analysis and water-quality surrogates at nine sites on the Animas and San Juan Rivers, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah
M. Alisa Mast
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5116
The purpose of this report is to evaluate the use of site-specific regression models to estimate metal concentrations at nine U.S. Geological Survey streamflow-gaging stations on the Animas and San Juan Rivers in Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Downstream users could use these regression models to determine if metal concentrations...
The conceptual schema in geospatial data standard design with application to GroundWaterML2
Boyan Brodaric, Eric Boisvert, Peter Dahlhaus, Sylvain Grellet, Alexander Kmoch, Francois Letourneau, Jessica Lucido, Bruce Simons, Bernhard Wagner
2018, Open Geospatial Data, Software and Standards (3) 1-15
The explosive growth of geospatial data has stimulated the development of many standards aimed at decreasing data heterogeneity and enhancing data use. Well-established design methods for geospatial data standards typically involve the creation of two schemas for data structure, designated here as logical and physical, but this can lead to...
Assessing the impact of open-ocean and back-barrier shoreline change on Dauphin Island, Alabama, at multiple time scales over the last 75 years
Christopher G. Smith, Joseph W. Long, Rachel E. Henderson, Paul R. Nelson
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1170
Dauphin Island and Little Dauphin Island, collectively, make up a geomorphically complex barrier island system located along Alabama’s southern coast, separating Mississippi Sound from the Gulf of Mexico and Mobile Bay. The barrier island system provides numerous economical (tourism, fisheries) and natural (habitat for migratory birds, natural protection of inland...
Estimating soil respiration in a subalpine landscape using point, terrain, climate and greenness data
Erin Michele Berryman, Melanie K. Vanderhoof, John B. Bradford, Todd Hawbaker, Paul D. Henne, Sean P. Burns, John M. Frank, Richard A. Birdsey, Michael G. Ryan
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research G: Biogeosciences (123) 3231-3249
Landscape carbon (C) flux estimates are necessary for assessing the ability of terrestrial ecosystems to buffer further increases in anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Advances in remote sensing have allowed for coarse-scale estimates of gross primary productivity (GPP) (e.g., MODIS 17), yet efforts to assess spatial patterns in respiration lag...
Sewage loading and microbial risk in urban waters of the Great Lakes
Sandra L. McLellan, Elizabeth P. Sauer, Steven R. Corsi, Melinda J. Bootsma, Alexandria B. Boehm, Susan K. Spencer, Mark A. Borchardt
2018, Elementa: Science of the anthropocene (6) 1-15
Despite modern sewer system infrastructure, the release of sewage from deteriorating pipes and sewer overflows is a major water pollution problem in US cities, particularly in coastal watersheds that are highly developed with large human populations. We quantified fecal pollution sources and loads entering Lake Michigan from a large watershed...
Serpentinite‐rich gouge in a creeping segment of the Bartlett Springs Fault, northern California: Comparison with SAFOD and implications for seismic hazard
Diane E. Moore, Robert J. McLaughlin, James J. Lienkaemper
2018, Tectonics (37) 4515-4534
An exposure of a creeping segment of the Bartlett Springs Fault (BSF), part of the San Andreas Fault system in northern California, is a ~1.5‐m‐wide zone of serpentinite‐bearing fault gouge cutting through Late Pleistocene fluvial deposits. The fault gouge consists of porphyroclasts of antigorite serpentinite, talc, chlorite, and tremolite‐actinolite, along...
Characteristic earthquake magnitude frequency distributions on faults calculated from consensus data in California
Thomas E. Parsons, Eric L. Geist, Rodolfo Console, Roberto Carluccio
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (123) 10,761-10,784
An estimate of the expected earthquake rate at all possible magnitudes is needed for seismic hazard forecasts. Regional earthquake magnitude frequency distributions obey a negative exponential law (Gutenberg‐Richter), but it's unclear if individual faults do. We add three new methods to calculate long‐term California earthquake rupture rates to the existing...
A video surveillance system to monitor breeding colonies of common terns (Sterna Hirundo)
J.L. Wall, Paul Marban, D.F. Brinker, J.D. Sullivan, M. Zimnik, J.L. Murrow, P. C. McGowan, Carl R. Callahan, Diann J. Prosser
2018, Journal of Visualized Experiments (137)
Many waterbird populations have faced declines over the last century, including the common tern (Sterna hirundo), a waterbird species with a widespread breeding distribution, that has been recently listed as endangered in some habitats of its range. Waterbird monitoring programs exist to track populations through time; however, some of the...
Tidal Wetlands and Estuaries
Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Wei Jun Cai, Simone Alin, Andreas Andersson, Joseph Crosswell, Kenneth Dunton, Jose Martin Hernandez-Ayon, Maria Herrmann, Audra L. Hinson, Charles Hopkinson, Jennifer Howard, Xinping Hu, Sara H. Knox, Kevin Kroeger, David Lagomasino, Patrick Megonigal, Raymond Najjar, May-Linn Paulsen, Dorothy Peteet, Emily Pidgeon, Karina Schafer, Zhaohui Aleck Wang, Maria Tzortziou, Elizabeth Watson
Jennifer Howard, Emily Pidgeon, editor(s)
2018, Book chapter, Second state of the carbon cycle report (SOCCR2): A sustained assessment report
1. The top 1 m of tidal wetland soils and estuarine sediments of North America contains 1,886 ± 1046 teragrams of carbon (Tg C). [High confidence, Very likely] 2. Soil carbon accumulation rate (i.e., sediment burial) in North American tidal wetlands is currently 9 ± 5 Tg C per year...
GSFLOW-GRASS v1.0.0: GIS-enabled hydrologic modeling of coupled groundwater–surface-water systems
G.-H. Crystal Ng, Andrew D. Wickert, Lauren D. Somers, Leila Saberi, Collin Cronkite-Ratcliff, Richard G. Niswonger, Jeffrey M. McKenzie
2018, Geoscientific Model Development (11) 4755-4777
The importance of water moving between the atmosphere and aquifers has led to efforts to develop and maintain coupled models of surface water and groundwater. However, developing inputs to these models is usually time-consuming and requires extensive knowledge of software engineering, often prohibiting their use by many researchers and water...
Propagation of endangered moapa dace
Jack E. Ruggirello, Scott A. Bonar, Olin G. Feuerbacher, Lee H. Simons, Chelsea Powers
2018, Copeia (106) 652-662
We report successful captive spawning and rearing of the highly endangered Moapa Dace, Moapa coriacea (approximately 650 individual fish in existence at time of this study). We simulated conditions under which this stream-dwelling southern Nevada cyprinid and similar species spawned and reared in the wild by varying temperature, photoperiod, flow, and substrate...
Land subsidence along the California Aqueduct in west-central San Joaquin Valley, California, 2003–10
Michelle Sneed, Justin T. Brandt, Michael Solt
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5144
Extensive groundwater withdrawal from the unconsolidated deposits in the San Joaquin Valley caused widespread aquifer-system compaction and resultant land subsidence from 1926 to 1970—locally exceeding 8.5 meters. The importation of surface water beginning in the early 1950s through the Delta-Mendota Canal and in the early 1970s through the California Aqueduct...
Groundwater-storage change and land-surface elevation change in Tucson Basin and Avra Valley, south-central Arizona--2003-2016
Robert L. Carruth, Libby M. Wildermuth, Brian D. Conway
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5154
The U.S. Geological Survey monitors groundwater-storage change and land-surface elevation change caused by groundwater withdrawal in Tucson Basin and Avra Valley—the two most populated alluvial basins within the Tucson Active Management Area. The Tucson Active Management Area is one of five active management areas in Arizona established by the 1980...
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) water-use websites
Kimberly Shaffer, Kathleen M. Rowland, B. Pierre Sargent
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3044
Explore U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) water-use websites to learn how and where the Nation's water use has changed over time! Learn how to find and access USGS water-use data shown in maps, graphs, visualizations, and information products. Gain a better understanding of water-use terms and USGS educational resources. Learn how to find and...
Simulation of groundwater flow and analysis of projected water use for the Rush Springs aquifer, western Oklahoma
J.H. Ellis
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5136
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation and the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, (1) quantified the groundwater resources of the Rush Springs aquifer in western Oklahoma by developing a numerical groundwater-flow model, (2) evaluated the effects of estimated equal-proportionate-share (EPS) pumping rates on aquifer storage and...
Geology and assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the East Siberian Sea Basin Province, 2008
Kenneth J. Bird, David W. Houseknecht, Janet K. Pitman
Thomas E. Moore, Donald L. Gautier, editor(s)
2018, Professional Paper 1824-Y
The East Siberian Sea Basin, which lies beneath the continental shelf east of the New Siberian Islands, is one of the better-known basins in a series of postorogenic (successor) basins in the East Siberian-Chukchi Sea region because of a reconnaissance network of seismic-reflection profiles and outcrops on nearby islands. In...
Assessing risks from harbor dredging to the northernmost population of diamondback terrapins using acoustic telemetry
Theodore R. Castro-Santos, M. Bolus, A. J. Danylchuk
2018, Estuaries and Coasts (42) 378-389
The northern diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin terrapin) is a saltmarsh-dependent turtle that occupies coastal habitats throughout much of the Atlantic coast of North America. We used a novel application of acoustic telemetry to quantify both mobility and occupancy of terrapins within a dredged harbor and surrounding habitats, and used these...
Biophysical assessment for indemnity selection of Federal Lands in Colorado
Natasha B. Carr, Lucy E. Burris, Daniel J. Manier
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1167
Information on the biophysical features of Federal lands identified as suitable for transfer to the State of Colorado was requested by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This information is intended for use in conducting an Environmental Assessment prior to the transfer of ownership (conveyance) to the State. The Colorado...
Honolulu Magnetic Observatory
Jeffrey J. Love, Carol Finn
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3029
Tucked in a grove of thorny mesquite trees, on an ancient coral reef on the south side of the Hawaiian island of Oahu, west of Pearl Harbor, a small unmanned observatory quietly records the Earth’s time-varying magnetic field. The Honolulu Magnetic Observatory is 1 of 14 that the U.S. Geological...
Fish behavior and abundance monitoring near a floating surface collector in North Fork Reservoir, Clackamas River, Oregon, using multi-beam acoustic imaging sonar
Collin D. Smith, John M. Plumb, Noah S. Adams
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1182
An imaging sonar was used to assess the behavior and abundance of fish sized the same as salmonid smolt and bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) at the entrance to the juvenile fish floating surface collector (FSC) at North Fork Reservoir, Oregon. The purpose of the FSC is to collect downriver...
