Geologic map of the Nepenthes Planum Region, Mars
James A. Skinner, Kenneth L. Tanaka
2018, Scientific Investigations Map 3389
This map product contains a map sheet at 1:1,506,000 scale that shows the geology of the Nepenthes Planum region of Mars, which is located between the cratered highlands that dominate the southern hemisphere and the less-cratered sedimentary plains that dominate the northern hemisphere. The map region contains cone- and mound-shaped landforms...
Archie’s saturation exponent for natural gas hydrate in coarse-grained reservoirs
Ann E. Cook, William F. Waite
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (123) 2069-2089
Accurately quantifying the amount of naturally occurring gas hydrate in marine and permafrost environments is important for assessing its resource potential and understanding the role of gas hydrate in the global carbon cycle. Electrical resistivity well logs are often used to calculate gas hydrate saturations, Sh, using Archie's equation. Archie's equation,...
Nonhydrostatic and surfbeat model predictions of extreme wave run-up in fringing reef environments
Christopher H. Lashley, Dano Roelvink, Ap R. van Dongeren, Mark L. Buckley, Ryan J. Lowe
2018, Coastal Engineering (137) 11-27
The accurate prediction of extreme wave run-up is important for effective coastal engineering design and coastal hazard management. While run-up processes on open sandy coasts have been reasonably well-studied, very few studies have focused on understanding and predicting wave run-up at coral reef-fronted coastlines. This paper applies the short-wave resolving,...
Identifying optimal remotely-sensed variables for ecosystem monitoring in Colorado Plateau drylands
Travis B. Poitras, Miguel L. Villarreal, Eric K. Waller, Travis W. Nauman, Mark E. Miller, Michael C. Duniway
2018, Journal of Arid Environments (153) 76-87
Water-limited ecosystems often recover slowly following anthropogenic or natural disturbance. Multitemporal remote sensing can be used to monitor ecosystem recovery after disturbance; however, dryland vegetation cover can be challenging to accurately measure due to sparse cover and spectral confusion between soils and non-photosynthetic vegetation. With the goal of optimizing...
Refining aging criteria for northern sea otters in Washington State
Krysten L. Schuler, Bridget B. Baker, Karl A. Mayer, Carolina Perez-Heydrich, Paula M. Holahan, Nancy J. Thomas, C. LeAnn White
2018, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (9) 208-221
Measurement of skull ossification patterns is a standard method for aging various mammalian species and has been used to age sea otters Enhydra lutris from Russia, California, and Alaska. Cementum annuli counts have also been verified as an accurate aging method for sea otters in Alaska. In this study, we compared cementum...
Investigation of a largescale common murre (Uria aalge) mortality event in California in 2015
Corinne Gibble, Rebecca Duerr, Barbara Bodenstein, Kirsten Lindquist, Jackie Lindsey, Jessie Beck, Laird A. Henkel, Jan Roletto, Jim Harvey, Raphael Kudela
2018, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (54) 569-574
From August through December 2015, beachcast bird survey programs reported increased deposition of common murres (Uria aalge) on central and northern California beaches, but not on southern California beaches. Coastal wildlife rehabilitation centers received more than 1,000 live, stranded, and debilitated murres from Sonoma County to San Luis Obispo County...
Drivers of solar radiation variability in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica
Maciej Obryk, Andrew G. Fountain, Peter Doran, Berry Lyons, Ryan Eastman
2018, Scientific Reports (8)
Annually averaged solar radiation in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica has varied by over 20 W m−2 during the past three decades; however, the drivers of this variability are unknown. Because small differences in radiation are important to water availability and ecosystem functioning in polar deserts, determining the causes are important to predictions...
Inferring species interactions through joint mark–recapture analysis
Charles B. Yackulic, Josh Korman, Michael D. Yard, Maria C. Dzul
2018, Ecology (99) 812-821
Introduced species are frequently implicated in declines of native species. In many cases, however, evidence linking introduced species to native declines is weak. Failure to make strong inferences regarding the role of introduced species can hamper attempts to predict population viability and delay effective management responses. For many species, mark–recapture...
Hot water in the Long Valley Caldera—The benefits and hazards of this large natural resource
William C. Evans, Shaul Hurwitz, Deborah Bergfeld, James F. Howle
2018, Fact Sheet 2018-3009
The volcanic processes that have shaped the Long Valley Caldera in eastern California have also created an abundant supply of natural hot water. This natural resource provides benefits to many users, including power generation at the Casa Diablo Geothermal Plant, warm water for a state fish hatchery, and beautiful scenic...
Volcano art at Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park—A science perspective
Ben Gaddis, James P. Kauahikaua
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1027
Long before landscape photography became common, artists sketched and painted scenes of faraway places for the masses. Throughout the 19th century, scientific expeditions to Hawaiʻi routinely employed artists to depict images for the people back home who had funded the exploration and for those with an interest in the newly...
Combining multiphase groundwater flow and slope stability models to assess stratovolcano flank collapse in the Cascade Range
Jessica L. Ball, Joshua M. Taron, Mark E. Reid, Shaul Hurwitz, Carol A. Finn, Paul A. Bedrosian
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth (123) 2787-2805
Hydrothermal alteration can create low‐permeability zones, potentially resulting in elevated pore‐fluid pressures, within a volcanic edifice. Strength reduction by rock alteration and high pore‐fluid pressures have been suggested as a mechanism for edifice flank instability. Here we combine numerical models of multiphase heat transport and groundwater...
Long-term population dynamics and conservation risk of migratory bull trout in the upper Columbia River basin
Ryan Kovach, Jonathan Armstrong, David Schmetterling, Robert Al-Chokhachy, Clint C. Muhlfeld
2018, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (75) 1960-1968
We used redd count data from 88 bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) populations in the upper Columbia River basin to quantify local and regional patterns in population dynamics, including adult abundance, long-term trend, and population synchrony. We further used this information to assess conservation risk of metapopulations using eight population dynamic...
Functional group, biomass, and climate change effects on ecological drought in semiarid grasslands
Scott D. Wilson, Daniel R. Schlaepfer, John B. Bradford, William K. Lauenroth, Michael C. Duniway, Sonia A. Hall, Khishigbayar Jamiyansharav, Gensuo Jia, Ariuntsetseg Lkhagva, Seth M. Munson, David A. Pyke, Britta Tietjen
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research G: Biogeosciences (123) 1072-1085
Water relations in plant communities are influenced both by contrasting functional groups (grasses, shrubs) and by climate change via complex effects on interception, uptake and transpiration. We modelled the effects of functional group replacement and biomass increase, both of which can be outcomes of invasion and vegetation management, and climate...
Managing an invasive corallimorph at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, Line Islands, Central Pacific
Thierry M. Work, Greta S. Aeby, Benjamin P. Neal, Nichole N. Price, Eric Conklin, Amanda Pollock
2018, Biological Invasions (20) 2197-2208
In 2007, a phase shift from corals to corallimorpharians (CM) centered around a shipwreck was documented at Palmyra Atoll, Line Islands. Subsequent surveys revealed CM to be overgrowing the reef benthos, including corals and coralline algae, potentially placing coral ecosystems in the atoll at risk. This prompted the U.S. Fish...
Groundwater quality in the Mokelumne, Cosumnes, and American River Watersheds, Sierra Nevada, California
Miranda S. Fram, Jennifer L. Shelton
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1047
Groundwater provides more than 40 percent of California’s drinking water. To protect this vital resource, the State of California created the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The GAMA Program’s Priority Basin Project assesses the quality of groundwater resources used for drinking water supply and increases public access to...
The role of frozen soil in groundwater discharge predictions for warming alpine watersheds
Sarah G. Evans, Shemin Ge, Clifford I. Voss, Noah P. Molotch
2018, Water Resources Research (54) 1599-1615
Climate warming may alter the quantity and timing of groundwater discharge to streams in high alpine watersheds due to changes in the timing of the duration of seasonal freezing in the subsurface and snowmelt recharge. It is imperative to understand the effects of seasonal freezing and recharge on groundwater discharge...
Shifting stream planform state decreases stream productivity yet increases riparian animal production
Michael P. Venarsky, David M. Walters, Robert O. Hall Jr., Bridget Livers, Ellen Wohl
2018, Oecologia (187) 167-180
In the Colorado Front Range (USA), disturbance history dictates stream planform. Undisturbed, old-growth streams have multiple channels and large amounts of wood and depositional habitat. Disturbed streams (wildfires and logging < 200 years ago) are single-channeled with mostly erosional habitat. We tested how these opposing stream states influenced organic matter, benthic macroinvertebrate...
The sedimentological characteristics and geochronology of the marshes of Dauphin Island, Alabama
Alisha M. Ellis, Christopher G. Smith, Marci E. Marot
2018, Open-File Report 2017-1165
In August 2015, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center collected 11 push cores from the marshes of Dauphin Island and Little Dauphin Island, Alabama. Sample site environments included high marshes, low salt marshes, and salt flats, and varied in distance from the shoreline....
The Chief Joseph Hatchery Program spring Chinook 2018 annual report
Andrea Pearl, Matthew Laramie, Casey Baldwin, John Rohrback, Brian Dietz, Matt McDaniel
2018, Report
No abstract available....
Natural and man-made hexavalent chromium, Cr(VI), in groundwater near a mapped plume, Hinkley, California—study progress as of May 2017, and a summative-scale approach to estimate background Cr(VI) concentrations
John A. Izbicki, Krishangi D. Groover
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1045
This report describes (1) work done between January 2015 and May 2017 as part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) hexavalent chromium, Cr(VI), background study and (2) the summative-scale approach to be used to estimate the extent of anthropogenic (man-made) Cr(VI) and background Cr(VI) concentrations near the Pacific Gas and...
Model methodology for estimating pesticide concentration extremes based on sparse monitoring data
Aldo V. Vecchia
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5159
This report describes a new methodology for using sparse (weekly or less frequent observations) and potentially highly censored pesticide monitoring data to simulate daily pesticide concentrations and associated quantities used for acute and chronic exposure assessments, such as the annual maximum daily concentration. The new methodology is based on a...
Annual variation in polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposure in tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) eggs and nestlings at Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) study sites
Christine M. Custer, Thomas W. Custer, Paul M. Dummer, Diana R. Goldberg, J. Christian Franson
2018, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (190) 1-7
Tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) eggs and nestlings were collected from 16 sites across the Great Lakes to quantify normal annual variation in total polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposure and to validate the sample size choice in earlier work. A sample size of five eggs or five nestlings per site...
Delineation of the hydrogeologic framework of the Big Sioux aquifer near Sioux Falls, South Dakota, using airborne electromagnetic data
Kristen J. Valseth, Gregory C. Delzer, Curtis V. Price
2018, Scientific Investigations Map 3393
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the City of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, began developing a groundwater-flow model of the Big Sioux aquifer in 2014 that will enable the City to make more informed water management decisions, such as delineation of areas of the greatest specific yield, which is...
Tributyltin: Advancing the science on assessing endocrine disruption with an unconventional endocrine-disrupting compound
Laurent Lagadic, Ioanna Katsiadaki, Ronald C. Biever, Patrick Guiney, Natalie Karouna-Renier, Tamar Schwarz, James P. Meador
2018, Book chapter, Reviews of environmental contamination and toxicology Volume 245
Tributyltin (TBT) has been recognized as an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) for several decades. However, only in the last decade, was its primary endocrine mechanism of action (MeOA) elucidated—interactions with the nuclear retinoid-X receptor (RXR), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ), and their heterodimers. This molecular initiating event (MIE) alters a...
Importance of growth rate on mercury and polychlorinated biphenyl bioaccumulation in fish
Jiajia Li, G. Douglas Haffner, Gordon Patterson, David M. Walters, Michael D. Burtnyk, Ken G. Drouillard
2018, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (37) 1655-1667
To evaluate the effect of fish growth on mercury (Hg) and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) bioaccumulation, a non–steady‐state toxicokinetic model, combined with a Wisconsin bioenergetics model, was developed to simulate Hg and PCB bioaccumulation in bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus). The model was validated by comparing observed with predicted Hg and PCB 180...
