Responses of unimpaired flows, storage, and managed flows to scenarios of climate change in the San Francisco Bay-Delta watershed
Noah Knowles, Collin Cronkite-Ratcliff, David W Pierce, Daniel R. Cayan
2018, Water Resources Research (54) 7631-7650
Projections of meteorology downscaled from global climate model runs were used to drive a model of unimpaired hydrology of the Sacramento/San Joaquin watershed, which in turn drove models of operational responses and managed flows. Twenty daily climate change scenarios for water years 1980–2099 were evaluated with...
Using tectonic tremor to constrain seismic‐wave attenuation in Cascadia
Geena F. Littel, Amanda M. Thomas, Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom
2018, Geophysical Research Letters (45) 9579-9587
Tectonic tremor can be used to constrain seismic‐wave attenuation for use in ground‐motion prediction equations (GMPEs) in regions where moderately sized earthquakes occur infrequently. Here we quantify seismic‐wave attenuation by inverting tremor ground motion amplitudes in different frequency bands of interest, to determine frequency dependence of and spatial variations in...
Compositional data analysis of coal combustion products with an application to a Wyoming power plant
J. A. Martín-Fernández, Ricardo A. Olea, Leslie F. Ruppert
2018, Mathematical Geosciences (50) 639-657
A mathematically sound approach for summarizing chemical analyses of feed coal and all its combustion products (bottom ash, economizer fly ash, and fly ash) is presented. The nature of the data requires the application of compositional techniques when conducting statistical analysis, techniques that have not been applied before to the...
The ecology of movement and behaviour: a saturated tripartite network for describing animal contacts
Kezia R. Manlove, Christina M. Aiello, Pratha Sah, Bree Cummins, Peter J. Hudson, Paul C. Cross
2018, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (285)
Ecologists regularly use animal contact networks to describe interactions underlying pathogen transmission, gene flow, and information transfer. However, empirical descriptions of contact often overlook some features of individual movement, and decisions about what kind of network to use in a particular setting are commonly ad hoc. Here, we relate individual movement...
Segmentation of Mississippi’s natural and artificial lakes
Leandro E. Miranda, L. A. Bull, M.E. Colvin, W.D. Hubbard, L.L. Pugh
2018, Lake and Reservoir Management (34) 376-391
Segmentations divide a diverse resource into groups, or segments, based on distinctive attributes that may respond similarly to management actions. A 4-way segmentation based on lake origin (natural or artificial) and size (small or large) was constructed for Mississippi lakes using a 30 yr data set. We aimed to document elements...
A method to detect discontinuities in census data
C. Barichievy, D. G. Angeler, T. N. Eason, A. S. Garmestani, K.L. Nash, C.A. Stow, S. Sundstrom, Craig R. Allen
2018, Ecology and Evolution (8) 9614-9623
The distribution of pattern across scales has predictive power in the analysis of complex systems. Discontinuity approaches remain a fruitful avenue of research in the quest for quantitative measures of resilience because discontinuity analysis provides an objective means of identifying scales in complex systems and facilitates delineation of hierarchical patterns...
Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in the Akita Basin Province, Japan, 2018
Christopher J. Schenk, Tracey J. Mercier, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Cheryl A. Woodall, Thomas M. Finn, Phuong A. Le, Kristen R. Marra, Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Ronald M. Drake II
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3047
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 111 million barrels of oil and 85 billion cubic feet of gas in the Akita Basin Province of Japan....
Annual and approximately quarterly series peak streamflow derived from interpretations of indirect measurements for a crest-stage gage network in Texas through water year 2015
William H. Asquith, Glenn R. Harwell, Karl E. Winters
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5107
In 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), incooperation with the Texas Department of Transportation,began collecting annual and approximately quarterly seriespeak-streamflow data at streamflow-gaging stations in smalltomedium-sized watersheds in central and western Texasas part of a crest-stage gage (CSG) network, along withselected flood-hydrograph data at a subset of these stations.CSGs record...
Four-dimensional isotopic approach to identify perchlorate sources in groundwater: Application to the Rialto-Colton and Chino subbasins, southern California (USA)
Paul B. Hatzinger, J.K. Bohlke, Neil C. Sturchio, John A. Izbicki, Nicholas F. Teague
2018, Applied Geochemistry (97) 213-225
Perchlorate (ClO4−) in groundwater can be from synthetic or natural sources. Natural sources include ClO4− associated with historical application of imported natural nitrate fertilizer from the Atacama Desert of Chile, and indigenous ClO4− that accumulates locally in arid regions from atmospheric deposition. The Rialto-Colton groundwater subbasin, 80 km east of Los Angeles, California, includes two...
Geochemical conditions and nitrogen transport in nearshore groundwater and the subterranean estuary at a Cape Cod embayment, East Falmouth, Massachusetts, 2013–14
John A. Colman, Denis R. LeBlanc, J.K. Bohlke, Timothy D. McCobb, Kevin D. Kroeger, Marcel Belaval, Thomas C. Cambareri, Gillian F. Pirolli, T. Wallace Brooks, Mary E. Garren, Tobias B. Stover, Ann Keeley
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5095
Nitrogen transport and transformation were studied during 2013 to 2014 by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in a subterranean estuary beneath onshore locations on the Seacoast Shores peninsula, a residential area in Falmouth, Massachusetts, served by septic systems and cesspools, and adjacent offshore...
PRISM marine sites—The history of PRISM sea surface temperature estimation
Marci M. Robinson, Harry J. Dowsett, Kevin M. Foley, Christina R. Riesselman
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1148
For more than three decades, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping (PRISM) Project has compiled paleoenvironmental data with the goal of reconstructing global conditions during the warm interval in the middle of the Piacenzian Age of the Pliocene Epoch (about 3.3 to 3.0 million years...
Shorebirds adjust spring arrival schedules with variable environmental conditions: Four decades of assessment on the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
Craig R. Ely, Brian McCaffery, Robert E. Gill Jr.
W. David Shuford, Robert E. Gill Jr., Colleen M. Handel, editor(s)
2018, Book chapter, Trends and traditions: Avifaunal change in western North America: Studies of Western Birds 3
Arctic summers are brief, and there has been strong selection for migratory birds to arrive in Arctic nesting areas as early as possible to time breeding with peak food availability and complete reproduction. The timing of emergence of nesting habitat in spring is, however, extremely variable in the Arctic, and few long-term studies...
Estimates of tidal-marsh bird densities using Bayesian networks
Whitney A. Wiest, Maureen D. Correll, Bruce G. Marcot, Brian J. Olsen, Chris Elphick, Thomas P. Hodgman, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, W. Gregory Shriver
2018, Journal of Wildlife Management (83) 109-120
Conserving tidal-marsh bird communities requires strategies to address continuing pressures from human development to the effects of increasing rates of sea-level rise. Knowing tidal-marsh bird distributions and population sizes are important for developing these strategies. In the Northeast United States, where estimates of sea-level rise are 3 times higher than...
Large hydromagmatic eruption related to Fernandina Volcano’s 1968 caldera collapse—Deposits, landforms, and ecosystem recovery
Keith A. Howard, Tom Simkin, Dennis J. Geist, Godfrey Merlen, Bruce Nolf
2018, Book chapter, Field volcanology: A tribute to the distinguished career of Don Swanson
The hydromagmatic eruption that immediately preceded the 1968 caldera collapse of Fernandina Volcano, Galápagos, which had a volcano explosivity index (VEI) of 4, offers a case study of powerful eruptions where basaltic magma interacts with caldera-ponded water. The 4-d-long hydromagmatic eruption sequence records an early stage and a small fraction...
New insights into surface-water/groundwater exchanges in the Guadalupe River, Texas, from floating geophysical methods
Scott J. Ikard, J. Ryan Banta, Gregory P. Stanton
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3057
In south-central Texas, the amount of streamflow in the Guadalupe River is a primary concern for local and downstream communities because of municipal, agricultural, wildlife, and recreational uses. Understanding the flow paths and rates of exchange between the surface water in the river and the groundwater in the underlying Carrizo-Wilcox...
Wastewater indicators, hormones, sterols, antibiotics, and pharmaceuticals in soil at an agricultural field irrigated with domestic septage, central Minnesota, September 2014
Sarah M. Elliott, Melinda L. Erickson, Aliesha L. Krall, Byron A. Adams
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5100
Treated domestic septage can be used to irrigate agricultural fields as a disposal method or as a means to reuse water. Because traditional on-site treatment systems are not designed to remove wastewater indicators, hormones, sterols, antibiotics, and pharmaceuticals, land application of septage potentially results in soil contamination. Soils were collected...
Suppression of vitrinite reflectance by bitumen generated from liptinite during hydrous pyrolysis of artificial source rock
Kenneth E. Peters, Paul C. Hackley, J. J. Thomas, A. E. Pomerantz
2018, Organic Geochemistry (125) 220-228
Mean random vitrinite reflectance (Ro) is the most widely accepted method to determine thermal maturity of coal and other sedimentary rocks. However, oil-immersion Ro of polished rock or kerogen samples is commonly lower than Ro values measured in samples from adjacent vitrinite-rich coals that have undergone the same level of thermal stress....
Patch age since disturbance drives patch dynamics for flycatchers breeding in both reservoir and riverine habitat
Tad C Theimer, Mark K. Sogge, Eben H. Paxton
2018, Ecosphere (9)
Species dependent upon early-successional landscapes often occupy patches at different stages of recovery after disturbance. The demographic processes that drive patch dynamics in these systems have rarely been described but are important for developing effective conservation and management plans, especially when humans have modified the timing and intensity of disturbances...
A snapshot of women of the U.S. Geological Survey in STEM and related careers
Susan C. Aragon-Long, Virginia R. Burkett, Holly S. Weyers, Susan M. Haig, Marjorie S. Davenport, Kelly L. Warner
2018, Circular 1443
IntroductionThe term “STEM” has been used to group together the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and to describe education and professions related to these fields. The professional fields connected to STEM education are thought of as engineering, medicine, and computer technology. Yet these professional fields are merely the...
What goes up must come down: Integrating air and water quality monitoring for nutrients
Helen M Amos, Chelcy Miniat, Jason A. Lynch, Jana Compton, Pamela H. Templer, Lori A. Sprague, Denice M Shaw, Douglas A. Burns, Anne Rea, Dave Whitall, LaToya Myles, David A. Gay, Mark A. Nilles, John W. Walker, Anita K Rose, Jerad Bales, Jeffrey R. Deacon, Rich Pouyet
2018, Environmental Science and Technology (52) 11441-11448
Excess nitrogen and phosphorus (“nutrients”) loadings continue to affect ecosystem function and human health across the U.S. Our ability to connect atmospheric inputs of nutrients to aquatic end points remains limited due to uncoupled air and water quality monitoring. Where connections...
Submarine deposition of a subaerial landslide in Taan Fiord, Alaska
Peter J. Haeussler, S. P. S Gulick, N. McCall, Maureen A. L. Walton, R. Reece, C. Larson, D. H. Shugar, M. Geertsema, J. G. Venditti, Keith A. Labay
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research (123) 2443-2463
A large subaerial landslide entered Taan Fiord, Alaska, on 17 October 2015 producing a tsunami with runup to 193 m. We use LiDAR data to show the slide volume to be 76 + 3/−4 million cubic meters and that 51,000,000 m3 entered Taan Fiord. In 2016, we mapped the fjord with multibeam bathymetry and high‐resolution...
Evaluating airsoft electric guns for control of invasive brown treesnakes
Adam J Knox, Bjorn Lardner, Amy Yackel, Robert Reed
2018, Wildlife Society Bulletin (42) 534-539
Firearms are often used in lethal control of invasive vertebrates, but safety and regulatory aspects limit the circumstances under which they can be used. During August 2016 at the Brown Treesnake Project laboratory on Guam, we evaluated hobby‐grade Airsoft Electric Guns (AEGs)—a lower powered, less‐hazardous, and...
A digital elevation model for simulating the 1945 Makran tsunami in Karachi Harbour
Haider Hasan, Brian F. Atwater, Shoaib Ahmed
2018, Geoscience Letters (5)
The digital elevation model documented here provides a tool for calibrating tsunami models to effects of the 1945 Makran tsunami that were observed in Karachi Harbour. The DEM bathymetry is derived from soundings made mainly during the first 8 years post-tsunami. While deficient in its portrayal of...
Tradeoffs of a portable, field-based environmental DNA platform for detecting invasive northern pike (Esox lucius) in Alaska
Adam J. Sepulveda, Patrick R. Hutchins, Robert L. Massengill, Kristine J. Dunker
2018, Management of Biological Invasions (9) 253-258
Environmental DNA (eDNA) has improved detection probabilities of aquatic invasive species but lab-based analyticalplatforms for eDNA analyses slow opportunities for rapid response. Effective approaches that address this analyticalbottleneck and improve capacity for rapid response are urgently needed. We tested the sensitivity of a portable, field-basedeDNA platform relative to widely used...
A bioenergetics evaluation of temperature‐dependent selection for the spawning phenology by Snake River fall Chinook salmon
John M. Plumb
2018, Ecology and Evolution (62) 351-354
High water temperatures can increase the energetic cost for salmon to migrate and spawn, which can be important for Snake River fall‐run Chinook salmon because they migrate great distances (>500 km) at a time when river temperatures (18–24°C) can be above their optimum temperatures (16.5°C). Average river temperatures and random combinations...
