Audiomagnetotelluric investigation of Snake Valley, eastern Nevada and western Utah
Darcy McPhee, Keith Pari, Frank Baird
2009, Geology and Geologic Resources and Issues of Western Utah 287-298
Audiomagnetotelluric (AMT) data along four profiles in western Snake Valley and the corresponding two-dimensional (2-D) inverse models reveal subsurface structures that may be significant to ground-water investigations in the area. The AMT method is a valuable tool for estimating the electrical resistivity of the earth over depth ranges from...
Avian response to early tidal salt marsh restoration at former commercial salt evaporation ponds in San Francisco Bay, California, USA
Nicole D. Athearn, John Y. Takekawa, Joel Shinn
2009, Natural Resources and Environmental Issues (15) 77-86
Restoration of former commercial salt evaporation ponds in the San Francisco Bay estuary is intended to reverse a severe decline (>79%) in tidal salt marshes. San Francisco Bay is a critical migratory stopover site and wintering area for shorebirds and waterfowl, and salt ponds are important high tide roosting and...
Status and trends of prey fish populations in Lake Superior, 2008
Owen T. Gorman, Lori M. Evrard, Gary A. Cholwek, Jill M. Falck, Daniel L. Yule
2009, Conference Paper
The Great Lakes Science Center has conducted annual daytime bottom trawl surveys of the Lake Superior nearshore (15-80 m bathymetric depth zone) every spring since 1978 to provide a long-term index of relative abundance and biomass of the fish community. Between May 5 and June 14, 2008, 58 stations were...
Many monstrous Missoula floods down channeled scabland and Columbia Valley, Washington
Richard B. Waitt, Roger P. Denlinger, Jim O’Connor
Jim O’Connor, Ian Madin, Rebecca Dorsey, editor(s)
2009, Book chapter, Volcanoes to vineyards: geologic field trips through the dynamic landscape of the Pacific Northwest
The late Wisconsin Missoula floods are Earth's largest known discharges of fresh water. They carved Washington's Channeled Scabland--made famous by J H. Bretz's writings in the 1920s to 1950s--and deposited sporadic huge gravel bars in the Scab-lands and Columbia valley. Since the late 1970s the great floods have been shown...
Cataclysms and controversy: Aspects of the geomorphology of the Columbia River Gorge
Jim O’Connor, Scott Burns
Ian Madin, Rebecca Dorsey, editor(s)
2009, Book chapter, Volcanoes to vineyards: Geologic field trips through the dynamic landscape of the Pacific Northwest
Landslides and floods of lava and water tremendously affected the Columbia River during its long history of transecting the Cascade Volcanic Arc. This field trip touches on aspects of the resulting geology of the scenic Columbia River Gorge, including the river-blocking Bonneville landslide of ~550 years ago and the great...
After the disaster: The hydrogeomorphic, ecological, and biological responses to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington
Jon J. Major, Charlie Crisafulli, John Bishop
2009, Book chapter, Volcanoes to vineyards: Geologic field trips through the dynamic landscape of the Pacific Northwest
The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens caused instantaneous landscape disturbance on a grand scale. On 18 May 1980, an ensemble of volcanic processes, including a debris avalanche, a directed pyroclastic density current, voluminous lahars, and widespread tephra fall, abruptly altered landscape hydrology and geomorphology, and created distinctive disturbance zones...
The response of hydrophobic organics and potential toxicity in streams to urbanization of watersheds in six metropolitan areas of the United States
Wade L. Bryant Jr., S. Goodbred
2009, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (157)
Semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs) were deployed in streams along a gradient of urban land-use intensity in and around six metropolitan areas: Atlanta, Georgia; Raleigh–Durham, North Carolina; and Denver–Fort Collins, Colorado, in 2003; and Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas; Milwaukee–Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Portland, Oregon, in 2004 to examine relations between percent urban...
Responses of benthic macroinvertebrates to urbanization in nine metropolitan areas of the conterminous United States
T. F. Cuffney, G. McMahon, R. Kashuba, J. T. May, I.R. Waite
2009, Conference Paper, Planning for an uncertain future - Monitoring, integration, and adaptation (SIR 2009-5049)
The effects of urbanization on benthic macroinvertebrates were investigated in nine metropolitan areas (Boston, MA; Raleigh, NC; Atlanta, GA; Birmingham, AL; Milwaukee–Green Bay, WI; Denver, CO; Dallas–Fort Worth, TX; Salt Lake City, UT; and Portland, OR) as a part of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Assessment Program. Several...
Primary factors affecting water quality and quantity in four watersheds in Eastern Puerto Rico
Sheila F. Murphy, Robert F. Stallard
2009, Conference Paper, Planning for an uncertain future - Monitoring, integration, and adaptation (SIR 2009-5049)
As part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB) program, four small watersheds in eastern Puerto Rico were monitored to identify and evaluate the effects of geology, landcover, atmospheric deposition, and other factors on stream water quality and quantity. Two catchments are located on coarse-grained...
Using high-frequency sampling to detect effects of atmospheric pollutants on stream chemistry
Stephen D. Sebestyen, James B. Shanley, Elizabeth W. Boyer
2009, Conference Paper, Planning for an uncertain future - Monitoring, integration, and adaptation (SIR 2009-5049)
We combined information from long-term (weekly over many years) and short-term (high-frequency during rainfall and snowmelt events) stream water sampling efforts to understand how atmospheric deposition affects stream chemistry. Water samples were collected at the Sleepers River Research Watershed, VT, a temperate upland forest site that receives elevated atmospheric deposition...
Water velocity, turbulence, and migration rate of subyearling fall Chinook salmon in the free-flowing and impounded Snake River
Kenneth F. Tiffan, Tobias J. Kock, Craig A. Haskell, William P. Connor, R. Kirk Steinhorst
2009, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (138) 373-384
We studied the migratory behavior of subyearling fall Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha in free-flowing and impounded reaches of the Snake River to evaluate the hypothesis that velocity and turbulence are the primary causal mechanisms of downstream migration. The hypothesis states that impoundment reduces velocity and turbulence and alters the migratory...
Environmental effects of hydrothermal alteration and historical mining on water and sediment quality in Central Colorado
S. E. Church, D. L. Fey, T. L. Klein, T.S. Schmidt, R. B. Wanty, E.H. deWitt, B.W. Rockwell, Juan C.A. San
2009, Conference Paper, Planning for an uncertain future - Monitoring, integration, and adaptation (SIR 2009-5049)
The U.S. Geological Survey conducted an environmental assessment of 198 catchments in a 54,000-km2 area of central Colorado, much of which is on Federal land. The Colorado Mineral Belt, a northeast-trending zone of historical base- and precious-metal mining, cuts diagonally across the study area. The investigation was intended to test...
Evaluating hydrological response to forecasted land-use change—scenario testing with the automated geospatial watershed assessment (AGWA) tool
William G. Kepner, Darius J. Semmens, Mariano Hernandez, David C. Goodrich
2009, Conference Paper, Planning for an uncertain future - Monitoring, integration, and adaptation (SIR 2009-5049)
Envisioning and evaluating future scenarios has emerged as a critical component of both science and social decision-making. The ability to assess, report, map, and forecast the life support functions of ecosystems is absolutely critical to our capacity to make informed decisions to maintain the sustainable nature of our ecosystem services...
An ecosystem services framework for multidisciplinary research in the Colorado River headwaters
D.J. Semmens, J.S. Briggs, D.A. Martin
2009, Conference Paper, Planning for an uncertain future - Monitoring, integration, and adaptation (SIR 2009-5049)
A rapidly spreading Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic is killing lodgepole pine forest in the Rocky Mountains, causing landscape change on a massive scale. Approximately 1.5 million acres of lodgepoledominated forest is already dead or dying in Colorado, the infestation is still spreading rapidly, and it is expected that in excess...
Selected achievements, science directions, and new opportunities for the WEBB small watershed research program
Pierre D. Glynn, Matthew C. Larsen, Earl A. Greene, Heather L. Buss, David W. Clow, Randall J. Hunt, M. Alisa Mast, Sheila F. Murphy, Norman E. Peters, Stephen D. Sebestyen, James B. Shanley, John F. Walker
2009, Conference Paper, Planning for an uncertain future - Monitoring, integration, and adaptation (SIR 2009-5049)
Over nearly two decades, the Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB) small watershed research program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has documented how water and solute fluxes, nutrient, carbon, and mercury dynamics, and weathering and sediment transport respond to natural and humancaused drivers, including climate, climate change, and atmospheric...
Adaptive management of watersheds and related resources
Byron K. Williams
2009, Conference Paper, Planning for an uncertain future - Monitoring, integration, and adaptation (SIR 2009-5049)
The concept of learning about natural resources through the practice of management has been around for several decades and by now is associated with the term adaptive management. The objectives of this paper are to offer a framework for adaptive management that includes an operational definition, a description of conditions...
Taxonomy of quaternary deep-sea ostracods from the Western North Atlantic ocean
Moriaki Yasuhara, H. Okahashi, T. M. Cronin
2009, Palaeontology (52) 879-931
Late Quaternary sediments from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Hole 1055B, Carolina Slope, western North Atlantic (32??47.041??? N, 76??17.179??? W; 1798m water depth) were examined for deep-sea ostracod taxonomy. A total of 13933 specimens were picked from 207 samples and c. 120 species were identified. Among them, 87 species were included...
Delta lobe degradation and hurricane impacts governing large-scale coastal behavior, South-central Louisiana, USA
M.D. Miner, M.A. Kulp, D. M. FitzGerald, J. G. Flocks, H.D. Weathers
2009, Geo-Marine Letters (29) 441-453
A large deficit in the coastal sediment budget, high rates of relative sea-level rise (???0.9 cm/year), and storm-induced current and wave erosion are forcing barrier shoreface retreat along the periphery of the Mississippi River delta plain. Additionally, conversion of interior wetlands to open water has increased the bay tidal prism,...
Using "big data" to optimally model hydrology and water quality across expansive regions
E.A. Roehl Jr., J.B. Cook, P.A. Conrads
2009, Conference Paper, Proceedings of World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2009 - World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2009: Great Rivers
This paper describes a new divide and conquer approach that leverages big environmental data, utilizing all available categorical and time-series data without subjectivity, to empirically model hydrologic and water-quality behaviors across expansive regions. The approach decomposes large, intractable problems into smaller ones that are optimally solved; decomposes complex signals into...
Food supplies of stream-dwelling salmonids
Mark S. Wipfli
2009, Conference Paper, American Fisheries Society Symposium 70
Much is known about the importance of the physical characteristics of salmonid habitat in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, with far less known about the food sources and trophic processes within these habitats, and the role they play in regulating salmonid productivity. Freshwater food webs supporting salmonids in Alaska rely...
The weathering of a sulfide orebody: Speciation and fate of some potential contaminants
A. Courtin-Nomade, C. Grosbois, M.A. Marcus, S.C. Fakra, J.-M. Beny, A. L. Foster
2009, Canadian Mineralogist (47) 493-508
Various potentially toxic trace elements such as As, Cu, Pb and Zn have been remobilized by the weathering of a sulfide orebody that was only partially mined at Leona Heights, California. As a result, this body has both natural and anthropogeni- cally modified weathering profiles only 500 m apart. The...
A 1000-year record of dry conditions in the eastern Canadian prairies reconstructed from oxygen and carbon isotope measurements on Lake Winnipeg sediment organics
W.M. Buhay, S. Simpson, H. Thorleifson, M. Lewis, J. King, A. Telka, Philip M. Wilkinson, J. Babb, S. Timsic, D. Bailey
2009, Journal of Quaternary Science (24) 426-436
A short sediment core (162 cm), covering the period AD 920-1999, was sampled from the south basin of Lake Winnipeg for a suite of multi-proxy analyses leading towards a detailed characterisation of the recent millennial lake environment and hydroclimate of southern Manitoba, Canada. Information on the frequency and duration of...
Environmental forcing on life history strategies: Evidence for multi-trophic level responses at ocean basin scales
Robert M. Suryan, Vincent S. Saba, Bryan P. Wallace, Scott A. Hatch, Morten Frederiksen, Sarah Wanless
2009, Progress in Oceanography (81) 214-222
Variation in life history traits of organisms is thought to reflect adaptations to environmental forcing occurring from bottom-up and top-down processes. Such variation occurs not only among, but also within species, indicating demographic plasticity in response to environmental conditions. From a broad literature review, we present evidence for ocean basin-...
Development of a local-scale urban stream assessment method using benthic macroinvertebrates: An example from the Santa Clara Basin, California
J.L. Carter, A.H. Purcell, S.V. Fend, V.H. Resh
2009, Journal of the North American Benthological Society (28) 1007-1021
Research that explores the biological response to urbanization on a site-specific scale is necessary for management of urban basins. Recent studies have proposed a method to characterize the biological response of benthic macroinvertebrates along an urban gradient for several climatic regions in the USA. Our study demonstrates how this general...
Structural and geochemical characteristics of faulted sediments and inferences on the role of water in deformatiion, Rio Grande Rift, New Mexico
Jonathan S. Caine, S.A. Minor
2009, Geological Society of America Bulletin (121) 1325-1340
The San Ysidro fault is a spectacularly exposed normal fault located in the northwestern Albuquerque Basin of the Rio Grande Rift. This intrabasin fault is representative of many faults that formed in poorly lithified sediments throughout the rift. The fault is exposed over nearly 10 km and accommodates nearly 700...
