PRISM3/GISS Topographic Reconstruction
Linda E. Sohl, Mark A. Chandler, Robert B. Schmunk, Ken Mankoff, Jeffrey A. Jonas, Kevin M. Foley, Harry J. Dowsett
2009, Data Series 419
The PRISM3/GISS topographic reconstruction is one of the global data sets incorporated into a new reconstruction for the mid-Piacenzian warm interval of the Pliocene, at about 3.3 to 3.0 Ma. The PRISM3/GISS topography-gridded data set is a digitization of a graphical reconstruction, provided at 2 deg x 2 deg resolution...
Comparison of NLCD with NWI Classifications of Baldwin and Mobile Counties, Alabama
Larry Handley, Chris Wells
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1058
An assessment of the accuracy of National Land Cover Data 2001 as compared to National Wetlands Inventory mapping of Mobile and Baldwin Counties conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Wetlands Research Center (NWRC). Both classifications were checked against stratified randomly selected ground-based sites and with each other to...
U.S. Geological Survey Science Strategy for the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative
Zachary H. Bowen, Cameron L. Aldridge, Patrick J. Anderson, Geneva W. Chong, Mark A. Drummond, Collin G. Homer, Ronald C. Johnson, Matthew J. Kauffman, Steven T. Knick, John J. Kosovich, Kirk A. Miller, Tom Owens, Sarah L. Shafer, Michael J. Sweat
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5195
Southwest Wyoming's wildlife and habitat resources are increasingly affected by energy and urban/exurban development, climate change, and other key drivers of ecosystem change. To ensure that southwest Wyoming's wildlife populations and habitats persist in the face of development and other changes, a consortium of public resource-management agencies proposed the Wyoming...
Using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to Simulate Runoff in Mustang Creek Basin, California
Dina K. Saleh, Charles R. Kratzer, Colleen H. Green, David G. Evans
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5031
This study is an evaluation of the calibration and validation of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) version 2005 watershed model for the Mustang Creek Basin, San Joaquin Valley, California. The study is part of a national study on the process of agricultural chemical movement through the hydrologic system,...
Hydrologic characterization for Spring Creek and hydrologic budget and model scenarios for Sheridan Lake, South Dakota, 1962-2007
Daniel G. Driscoll, Parker A. Norton
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5059
The U.S. Geological Survey cooperated with South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks to characterize hydrologic information relevant to management of water resources associated with Sheridan Lake, which is formed by a dam on Spring Creek. This effort consisted primarily of characterization of hydrologic data for a base period of 1962...
Relations between Municipal Water Use and Selected Meteorological Parameters and Drought Indices, East-Central and Northeast Florida
Louis C. Murray Jr.
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5010
Water-use data collected between 1992 and 2006 at eight municipal water-supply utilities in east-central and northeast Florida were analyzed to identify seasonal trends in use and to quantify monthly variations. Regression analyses were applied to identify significant correlations between water use and selected meteorological parameters and drought indices. Selected parameters...
Proceedings of the Second All-USGS Modeling Conference, February 11-14, 2008: Painting the Big Picture
Shailaja R. Brady, editor(s)
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5013
The Second USGS Modeling Conference was held February 11-14, 2008, in Orange Beach, Ala. Participants at the conference came from all U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) regions and represented all four science discipline - Biology, Geography, Geology, and Water. Representatives from other Department of the Interior (DOI) agencies and partners from...
Coastal Processes Study of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, California
Patrick L. Barnard, David L. Revell, Dan Hoover, Jon Warrick, John Brocatus, Amy E. Draut, Pete Dartnell, Edwin Elias, Neomi Mustain, Pat E. Hart, Holly F. Ryan
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1029
The Santa Barbara littoral cell (SBLC) is a complex coastal system with significant management challenges. The coastline ranges broadly in exposure to wave energy, fluvial inputs, hard structures, and urbanization. Geologic influence (structural control) on coastline orientation exerts an important control on local beach behavior, with anthropogenic alterations and the...
An Index to PGE-Ni-Cr Deposits and Occurrences in Selected Mineral-Occurrence Databases
J. Douglas Causey, John P. Galloway, Michael L. Zientek
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1045
Databases of mineral deposits and occurrences are essential to conducting assessments of undiscovered mineral resources. In the USGS's (U.S. Geological Survey) global assessment of undiscovered resources of copper, potash, and the platinum-group elements (PGE), only a few mineral deposit types will be evaluated. For example, only porphyry-copper and sediment-hosted copper...
Comparison of Surface Flow Features from Lidar-Derived Digital Elevation Models with Historical Elevation and Hydrography Data for Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Sandra K. Poppenga, Bruce B. Worstell, Jason M. Stoker, Susan K. Greenlee
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5065
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has taken the lead in the creation of a valuable remote sensing product by incorporating digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) into the National Elevation Dataset (NED), the elevation layer of 'The National Map'. High-resolution lidar-derived DEMs provide the accuracy...
Analysis of vertical flow during ambient and pumped conditions in four monitoring wells at the Pantex Plant, Carson County, Texas, July-September 2008
Gregory P. Stanton, Jonathan V. Thomas, Jeffery Stoval
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1017
The Pantex Plant is a U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (USDOE/NNSA)-owned, contractor-operated facility managed by Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Pantex, LLC (B&W Pantex) in Carson County, Texas, approximately 17 miles northeast of Amarillo. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with B&W Pantex through the USDOE/NNSA, made a...
Method for Estimating Water Withdrawals for Livestock in the United States, 2005
John K. Lovelace
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5041
Livestock water use includes ground water and surface water associated with livestock watering, feedlots, dairy operations, and other on-farm needs. The water may be used for drinking, cooling, sanitation, waste disposal, and other needs related to the animals. Estimates of water withdrawals for livestock are needed for water planning and...
Postcatastrophe population dynamics and density dependence of an endemic island duck
N.E. Seavy, M.H. Reynolds, W.A. Link, Jeff S. Hatfield
2009, Journal of Wildlife Management (73) 414-418
Laysan ducks (Anas laysanensis) are restricted to approximately 9 km2 in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, USA. To evaluate the importance of density dependence for Laysan ducks, we conducted a Bayesian analysis to estimate the parameters of a Gompertz model and the magnitude of process variation and observation error based on...
Distribution and abundance of host-seeking Culex species at three proximate locations with different levels of West Nile virus activity
Ilia Rochlin, Howard S. Ginsberg, Scott R. Campbell
2009, American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (80) 661-668
Culex species were monitored at three proximate sites with historically different West Nile virus (WNV) activities. The site with human WNV transmission (epidemic) had the lowest abundance of the putative bridge vectors, Culex pipiens and Cx. salinarius. The site with horse cases but not human cases (epizootic) had the highest percent composition of Cx. salinarius,...
Fire in the Earth system
David M. J. S. Bowman, Jennifer Balch, Paulo Artaxo, William J. Bond, Jean M. Carlson, Mark A. Cochrane, Carla M. D'Antonio, Ruth S. DeFries, John C. Doyle, Sandy P. Harrison, Fay H. Johnston, Jon E. Keeley, Meg A. Krawchuk, Christian A. Kull, J. Brad Marston, Max A. Moritz, I. Colin Prentice, Christopher I. Roos, Andrew C. Scott, Thomas W. Swetnam, Guido R. van der Werf, Stephen Pyne
2009, Science (324) 481-484
Fire is a worldwide phenomenon that appears in the geological record soon after the appearance of terrestrial plants. Fire influences global ecosystem patterns and processes, including vegetation distribution and structure, the carbon cycle, and climate. Although humans and fire have always coexisted, our capacity to manage fire remains imperfect and...
A spatial model to assess the effects of hydropower operations on Columbia River fall Chinook Salmon spawning habitat
James R. Hatten, Kenneth F. Tiffan, Donald R. Anglin, Steven L. Haeseker, Joseph J. Skalicky, Howard Schaller
2009, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (29) 1379-1405
Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia River produces large daily and hourly streamflow fluctuations throughout the Hanford Reach during the period when fall Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha are selecting spawning habitat, constructing redds, and actively engaged in spawning. Concern over the detrimental effects of these fluctuations prompted us to quantify...
Hydroecological factors governing surface water flow on a low-gradient floodplain
Judson W. Harvey, Raymond W. Schaffranek, Gregory B. Noe, Laurel G. Larsen, Daniel Nowacki, Benjamin L O'Connor
2009, Water Resources Research (45) W03421
"Interrelationships between hydrology and aquatic ecosystems are better understood in streams and rivers compared to their surrounding floodplains. Our goal was to characterize the hydrology of the Everglades ridge and slough floodplain ecosystem, which is valued for the comparatively high biodiversity and connectivity of its parallel-drainage features but which has...
The ecology of climate change and infectious diseases
Kevin D. Lafferty
2009, Ecology (90) 888-900
The projected global increase in the distribution and prevalence of infectious diseases with climate change suggests a pending societal crisis. The subject is increasingly attracting the attention of health professionals and climate-change scientists, particularly with respect to malaria and other vector-transmitted human diseases. The result has been the emergence of...
New quantitative evidence of extreme warmth in the Pliocene Arctic
Marci M. Robinson
2009, Stratigraphy (6) 265-276
The most recent geologic interval characterized by warm temperatures similar to those projected for the end of this century occurred about 3.3 to 3.0 Ma, during the mid-Piacenzian Age of the Pliocene Epoch. Climate reconstructions of this warm period are integral to both understanding past warm climate equilibria and to...
Continuous Tidal Streamflow and Gage-Height Data for Bass and Cinder Creeks on Kiawah Island, South Carolina, September 2007
Paul Conrads, John W. Erbland
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1037
A three-dimensional model of Bass and Cinder Creeks on Kiawah Island, South Carolina, was developed to evaluate methodologies for determining fecal coliform total maximum daily loads for shellfish waters. To calibrate the model, two index-velocity sites on the creeks were instrumented with continuous acoustic velocity meters and water-level sensors to...
Application of the SHOALS survey system to fisheries investigations in the Columbia River
Kenneth F. Tiffan, Paul G. Wagner, Keith S. Wolf, Paul A. Hoffarth
2009, Book, Remote sensing applications for aquatic resource monitoring
We used a Scanning Hydrographic Operational Airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) Survey (SHOALS) system to collect high-resolution bathymetry for 33 km of the Hanford Reach. Data were used in conjunction with hydrodynamic and predictive habitat models within a GIS (Geographical Information System) framework to evaluate the effects of a...
Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide Deposits of the World - Database and Grade and Tonnage Models
Dan L. Mosier, Vladimir I. Berger, Donald A. Singer
2009, Open-File Report 2009-1034
Grade and tonnage models are useful in quantitative mineral-resource assessments. The models and database presented in this report are an update of earlier publications about volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits. These VMS deposits include what were formerly classified as kuroko, Cyprus, and Besshi deposits. The update was necessary because of...
Validation of a Ground-Water Flow Model of the Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer Using Water-Level and Water-Use Data for 1998-2005 and Evaluation of Water-Use Scenarios
Jonathan A. Gillip, John B. Czarnecki
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5040
A ground-water flow model of the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer in eastern Arkansas, developed in 2003 to simulate the period of 1918-98, was validated with the addition of water-level and water-use data that extended the observation period to 2005. The original model (2003) was calibrated using water-level observations from...
Magnitude and frequency of rural floods in the southeastern United States, 2006: Volume 1, Georgia
Anthony J. Gotvald, Toby D. Feaster, J. Curtis Weaver
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5043
A multistate approach was used to update methods for estimating the magnitude and frequency of floods in rural, ungaged basins in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina that are not substantially affected by regulation, tidal fluctuations, or urban development. Annual peak-flow data through September 2006 were analyzed for 943 streamgaging...
Trends in streamflow characteristics of selected sites in the Elkhorn River, Salt Creek, and Lower Platte River Basins, Eastern Nebraska, 1928-2004, and evaluation of streamflows in relation to instream-flow criteria, 1953-2004
Benjamin J. Dietsch, Julie A. Godberson, Gregory V. Steele
2009, Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5011
The Nebraska Department of Natural Resources approved instream-flow appropriations on the Platte River to maintain fish communities, whooping crane roost habitat, and wet meadows used by several wild bird species. In the lower Platte River region, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission owns an appropriation filed to maintain streamflow for...
