A history of trade routes and water-level regulation on waterways in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, USA
Victoria G. Christensen, Andrew E. LaBounty
2018, Conference Paper, World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2018
Unlike most national parks, main access to Voyageurs National Park is by boat. This remote system of interconnected waterways along the USA-Canada border was an important transportation route for thousands of years of American Indian occupation, leading up to and including the trade route of the voyageurs, or French-Canadian fur...
Acoustic telemetry observation systems: challenges encountered and overcome in the Laurentian Great Lakes
Charles C. Krueger, Christopher Holbrook, Thomas R. Binder, Christopher Vandergoot, Todd A. Hayden, Darryl W. Hondorp, Nancy Nate, Kelli Paige, Stephen Riley, Aaron T. Fisk, Steven J. Cooke
2018, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (75) 1755-1763
The Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry Observation System (GLATOS), organized in 2012, aims to advance and improve conservation and management of Great Lakes fishes by providing information on behavior, habitat use, and population dynamics. GLATOS faced challenges during establishment, including a funding agency-imposed urgency to initiate projects, a lack of telemetry...
Voyageurs National Park: Water-level regulation and effects on water quality and aquatic biology
Victoria G. Christensen, Ryan P. Maki, Jaime F. LeDuc
2018, Conference Paper, World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2018
Following dam installations in the remote Rainy Lake Basin during the early 1900s, water-level fluctuations were considered extreme (1914–1949) compared to more natural conditions. In 1949, the International Joint Commission (IJC), which sets rules governing dam operation on waters shared by the United States and Canada, established the...
Real-time water quality monitoring at a Great Lakes National Park
Muruleedhara Byappanahalli, Meredith B. Nevers, Dawn Shively, Ashley Spoljaric, Christopher Otto
2018, Journal of Environmental Quality
Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used by the USEPA to establish new recreational water quality criteria in 2012 using the indicator bacteria enterococci. The application of this method has been limited, but resource managers are interested in more timely monitoring results. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of...
Ground-nesting great horned owl in Suisun Marsh, California
Shannon Skalos, Matthew J. Falcon, Olivia Wang, Andrea Lynn Mott, Melissa Hunt, Orlando Rocha, Josh T. Ackerman, Michael L. Casazza, Joshua M. Hull
2018, California Fish and Game (104) 164-172
Great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) are widespread throughout North, Central, and parts of South America (Artuso et al. 2013). Across this range, great horned owls are generalists, occupying a diverse range of habitats including deciduous and coniferous forests, wetlands, and agricultural landscapes. Within these habitats, great horned owls are generally...
Preliminary geologic framework developed for a proposed environmental monitoring study of a deep, unconventional Marcellus Shale drill site, Washington County, Pennsylvania
Robert G. Stamm
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1057
BackgroundIn the fall of 2011, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) was afforded an opportunity to participate in an environmental monitoring study of the potential impacts of a deep, unconventional Marcellus Shale hydraulic fracturing site. The drill site of the prospective case study is the “Range Resources MCC Partners L.P. Units...
Geologic map of the Fort Morgan 7.5' quadrangle, Morgan County, Colorado
Margaret E. Berry, Emily M. Taylor, Janet L. Slate, James B. Paces, Paul R. Hanson, Theodore R. Brandt
2018, Scientific Investigations Map 3408
The Fort Morgan 7.5′ quadrangle is located on the semiarid plains of northeastern Colorado, along the South Platte River corridor where the river has incised into Upper Cretaceous Pierre Shale. The Pierre Shale is largely covered by surficial deposits that formed from alluvial, eolian, and hillslope processes operating in concert...
On the feasibility of real-time mapping of the geoelectric field across North America
Jeffrey J. Love, E. Joshua Rigler, Anna Kelbert, Carol A. Finn, Paul A. Bedrosian, Christopher C. Balch
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1043
A review is given of the present feasibility for accurately mapping geoelectric fields across North America in near-realtime by modeling geomagnetic monitoring and magnetotelluric survey data. Should this capability be successfully developed, it could inform utility companies of magnetic-storm interference on electric-power-grid systems. That real-time mapping of geoelectric fields is...
On the petrographic distinction of bituminite from solid bitumen in immature to early mature source rocks
Paul C. Hackley, Brett J. Valentine, Javin J. Hatcherian
2018, International Journal of Coal Geology (196) 232-245
The oil-prone maceral bituminite (and its equivalents: ‘amorphous organic matter’, ‘sapropelinite’, ‘amorphinite’, etc.) converts to petroleum during thermal maturation of source rocks, resulting in formation of a mobile saturate-rich hydrocarbon and a polar-rich residue of solid bitumen. Evidence of this transition is preserved in immature to early mature source rocks (e.g., Alum, Bakken,...
Against the current— The Mojave River from sink to source: The 2018 Desert Symposium field trip road log
David M. Miller, R.E. Reynolds, Krishangi D. Groover, David C. Buesch, H. J. Brown, Geoffrey Cromwell, Jill N. Densmore, A.L. Garcia, D. Hughson, J.R. Knott, Jeffrey E. Lovich
2018, Conference Paper, Against the Current: The Mojave River from Sink to Source; 2018 Desert Symposium
The Mojave River evolved over the past few million years by “fill and spill” from upper basins near its source in the Transverse Ranges to lower basins. Each newly “spilled into” basin in the series? sustained a long-lived lake but gradually filled with Mojave River sediment, leading to spill to...
Flooding alters plant-mediated carbon cycling independently of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations
Scott F. Jones, Camille L. Stagg, Ken W. Krauss, Mark W. Hester
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (123) 1976-1987
Plant‐mediated processes determine carbon (C) cycling and storage in many ecosystems; how plant‐associated processes may be altered by climate‐induced changes in environmental drivers is therefore an essential question for understanding global C cycling. In this study, we hypothesize that environmental alterations associated with near‐term climate change can exert strong control...
Bend-scale geomorphic classification and assessment of the Lower Missouri River from Sioux City, Iowa, to the Mississippi River for application to pallid sturgeon management
Robert B. Jacobson, Michael E. Colvin, Edward A. Bulliner, Darcy Pickard, Caroline M. Elliott
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5069
Management actions intended to increase growth and survival of pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) age-0 larvae on the Lower Missouri River require a comprehensive understanding of the geomorphic habitat template of the river. The study described here had two objectives relating to where channel-reconfiguration projects should be located to optimize effectiveness....
Water-quality observations of the San Antonio segment of the Edwards aquifer, Texas, with an emphasis on processes influencing nutrient and pesticide geochemistry and factors affecting aquifer vulnerability, 2010–16
Stephen P. Opsahl, MaryLynn Musgrove, Barbara Mahler, Rebecca B. Lambert
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5060
As questions regarding the influence of increasing urbanization on water quality in the Edwards aquifer are raised, a better understanding of the sources, fate, and transport of compounds of concern in the aquifer—in particular, nutrients and pesticides—is needed to improve water management decision-making capabilities. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation...
Development of a United States community shear wave velocity profile database
Sean K. Ahdi, Shamsher Sadiq, Okan Ilhan, Yousef Bozorgnia, Youssef M. A. Hashash, Dong Youp Kwak, Duhee Park, Alan Yong, Jonathan P. Stewart
2018, Conference Paper
We present the details of a multi-institutional effort to develop an open-access shear-wave velocity (VS) profile database (PDB), which will include a public repository for VS profile data in the United States. VS profiles are an essential resource for ground motion modeling and other applications. The minimum requirements for a site to be included...
Ongoing bedrock incision of the Fortymile River driven by Pliocene–Pleistocene Yukon River capture, eastern Alaska, USA, and Yukon, Canada
Adrian Bender, Richard O. Lease, Lee B. Corbett, Paul R. Bierman, Marc Caffee
2018, Geology (46) 635-638
Quantification of river incision via process rate laws represents a key goal of geomorphic research, but such models often fail to reproduce traits of natural rivers responding to base-level lowering. The Fortymile River flows from eastern Alaska in the United States to the Yukon...
Three visualization approaches for communicating and exploring PIT tag data
Benjamin H. Letcher, Jeffrey D. Walker, Matthew O'Donnell, Andrew R. Whiteley, Keith Nislow, Jason Coombs
2018, Fisheries (43) 241-248
As the number, size and complexity of ecological datasets has increased, narrative and interactive raw data visualizations have emerged as important tools for exploring and understanding these large datasets. As a demonstration, we developed three visualizations to communicate and explore passive integrated transponder tag data from two long-term field studies....
Mean composite fire severity metrics computed with Google Earth Engine offer improved accuracy and expanded mapping potential
Sean Parks, Lisa M. Holsinger, Morgan Voss, Rachel A. Loehman, Nathaniel P. Robinson
2018, Remote Sensing (10)
Landsat-based fire severity datasets are an invaluable resource for monitoring and research purposes. These gridded fire severity datasets are generally produced with pre-and post-fire imagery to estimate the degree of fire-induced ecological change. Here, we introduce methods to produce three Landsat-based fire severity metrics using the Google Earth Engine (GEE)...
Mineral resource of the month: Chromium
Ruth Schulte
2018, Earth Magazine (June 2018) 48-49
Although chromium is a metal, it does not occur naturally in metallic form. Chromium can be found in many minerals, but the only economically significant chromium-bearing mineral is chromite. Chromite has been mined from four different deposit types: stratiform chromite, podiform chromite, placer chromite, and laterite deposits. Most of the...
2017 National Park visitor spending effects : Economic contributions to local communities, states, and the Nation
Catherine M. Cullinane Thomas, Lynne Koontz, Egan Cornachione
2018, Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/NRSS/EQD/NRR—2018/1616
The National Park Service (NPS) manages the Nation’s most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors from across the Nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports a considerable amount of economic activity within park gateway communities. This economic effects analysis measures how NPS visitor...
Ask not what nature can do for you: A critique of ecosystem services as a communication strategy
Sarah A. Bekessy, Michael C. Runge, Alex Kusmanoff, David A. Keith, Brendan A. Wintle
2018, Biological Conservation (224) 71-74
Given the urgent need to raise public awareness on biodiversity issues, we review the effectiveness of “ecosystem services” as a frame for promoting biodiversity conservation. Since its inception as a communications tool in the 1970s, the concept of ecosystem services has become pervasive in biodiversity policy. While the goal of...
Quantifying relative importance: Computing standardized effects in models with binary outcomes
James B. Grace, Darren Johnson, Jonathan S. Lefcheck, Jarrett E. K. Byrnes
2018, Ecosphere (9)
Scientists commonly ask questions about the relative importances of processes, and then turn to statistical models for answers. Standardized coefficients are typically used in such situations, with the goal being to compare effects on a common scale. Traditional approaches to obtaining standardized coefficients were developed with idealized Gaussian variables in...
Evaluating outcomes of management targeting the recovery of a migratory songbird of conservation concern
Henry M. Streby, Gunnar R. Kramer, Sean M. Peterson, David E. Andersen
2018, PeerJ
Assessing outcomes of habitat management is critical for informing and adapting conservation plans. From 2013 – 2019, a multi-stage management initiative aims to create >25,000 ha of shrubland and early-successional vegetation to benefit Golden-winged Warblers (Vermivora chrysoptera) in managed forested landscapes of the western Great Lakes region. We studied a...
The influence of neap-spring tidal variation and wave energy on sediment flux in salt marsh tidal creeks
Jessica R. Lacy, Matthew C. Ferner, John C. Callaway
2018, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (43) 2384-2396
Sediment flux in marsh tidal creeks is commonly used to gage sediment supply to marshes. We conducted a field investigation of temporal variability in sediment flux in tidal creeks in the accreting tidal marsh at China Camp State Park adjacent to northern San Francisco Bay. Suspended-sediment concentration (SSC), velocity,...
Injection-induced moment release can also be aseismic
Arthur McGarr, Andrew J. Barbour
2018, Geophysical Research Letters (45) 5344-5351
The cumulative seismic moment is a robust measure of the earthquake response to fluid injection for injection volumes ranging from 3100 to about 12 million m3. Over this range, the moment release is limited to twice the product of the shear modulus and the volume of injected fluid. This relation...
Multiple stacked plays to drive continued Permian development
Kristen R. Marra, Stephanie B. Gaswirth
2018, Oil & Gas Journal (116) 44-47
The exploitation of unconventional (continuous) resource plays with horizontal drilling and fracturing techniques continues to spur renewed development in mature producing basins in the US. The Permian basin of west Texas has emerged as a particularly strong prospect due to the potential for multiple stacked resource plays in formations...
