U.S. Geological Survey National Strong-Motion Project strategic plan, 2017–22
Brad T. Aagaard, Mehmet Celebi, Lind Gee, Robert Graves, Kishor S. Jaiswal, Erol Kalkan, Keith L. Knudsen, Nico Luco, James Smith, Jamison Steidl, Christopher D. Stephens
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1156
The mission of the National Strong-Motion Project is to provide measurements of how the ground and built environment behave during earthquake shaking to the earthquake engineering community, the scientific community, emergency managers, public agencies, industry, media, and other users for the following purposes: Improving engineering evaluations and design methods for...
U.S. Geological Survey shrub/grass products provide new approach to shrubland monitoring
Steven M. Young
2017, Fact Sheet 2017-3084
In the Western United States, shrubland ecosystems provide vital ecological, hydrological, biological, agricultural, and recreational services. However, disturbances such as livestock grazing, exotic species invasion, conversion to agriculture, climate change, urban expansion, and energy development are altering these ecosystems.Improving our understanding of how shrublands are distributed, where they are changing,...
Simulating the effects of management practices on cropland soil organic carbon changes in the Temperate Prairies Ecoregion of the United States from 1980 to 2012
Zhen Li, Shuguang Liu, Zhengxi Tan, Terry L. Sohl, Yiping Wu
2017, Ecological Modelling (365) 68-79
Understanding the effects of management practices on soil organic carbon (SOC) is important for designing effective policies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture. In the Midwest United States, management practices in the croplands have been improved to increase crop production and reduce SOC loss since the 1980s. Many studies...
Aftershocks, earthquake effects, and the location of the large 14 December 1872 earthquake near Entiat, central Washington
Thomas M. Brocher, Margaret G. Hopper, S.T. Ted Algermissen, David M. Perkins, Stanley R. Brockman, Edouard P. Arnold
2017, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (108) 66-83
Reported aftershock durations, earthquake effects, and other observations from the large 14 December 1872 earthquake in central Washington are consistent with an epicenter near Entiat, Washington. Aftershocks were reported for more than 3 months only near Entiat. Modal intensity data described in this article are consistent with an Entiat area...
Increased sediment load during a large-scale dam removal changes nearshore subtidal communities
Stephen P. Rubin, Ian M. Miller, Melissa M. Foley, Helen D. Berry, Jeffrey J. Duda, Benjamin Hudson, Nancy E. Elder, Matthew M. Beirne, Jonathan A. Warrick, Michael L. McHenry, Andrew W. Stevens, Emily Eidam, Andrea Ogston, Guy R. Gelfenbaum, Rob Pedersen
2017, PLoS ONE (12) 1-46
The coastal marine ecosystem near the Elwha River was altered by a massive sediment influx—over 10 million tonnes—during the staged three-year removal of two hydropower dams. We used time series of bathymetry, substrate grain size, remotely sensed turbidity, scuba dive surveys, and towed video observations collected before and during dam...
Evaluation and use of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Clean Watersheds Needs Survey data to quantify nutrient loads to surface water, 1978–2012
Tamara I. Ivahnenko
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5115
Changes in municipal and industrial point-source discharges over time have been an important factor affecting nutrient trends in many of the Nation’s streams and rivers. This report documents how three U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) national datasets—the Permit Compliance System, the Integrated Compliance Information System, and the Clean Watersheds Needs...
The ACER pollen and charcoal database: A global resource to document vegetation and fire response to abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period
M.F. Sanchez-Goni, S. Desprat, A.-L. Daniau, F. Bassinot, J.M. Polanco-Martinez, S.P. Harrison, J.R.M. Allen, R. S. Anderson, H. Behling, R. Bonnefille, F. Burjachs, J.S. Carrion, R. Cheddadi, J.S. Clark, N. Combourieu-Nebout, C.J. Courtney Mustaphi, G.H. Debusk, L. Dupont, J. Finch, W.J. Fletcher, M. Giardini, C. González, W.D. Gosling, L.D. Grigg, E.C. Grimm, R. Hayashi, K. Helmens, Heusser. L.E., T. Hill, G. Hope, B. Huntley, Y. Igarashi, T. Irino, B. F. Jacobs, G. Jiménez-Moreno, S. Kawai, P. Kershaw, F. Kumon, I. Lawson, M.-P. Ledru, A.-M. Lézine, P.-M. Liew, D. Magri, R. Marchant, V. Margari, F. Mayle, M. McKenzie, P. Moss, U.C. Muller, F. Naughton, R.M. Newnham, T. Oba, R. Perez-Obiol, R. Pini, C. Ravazzi, K.H. Roucoux, S. Rucina, L. Scott, H. Takahara, P.C. Tzedakis, D.H. Urrego, Debra A. Willard, B. Van Geel, B.G. Valencia, M.J. Vandergoes, A. Vincens, C.L. Whitlock, Debra A. Willard, M. Yamamoto
2017, Earth System Science Data (9) 679-695
Quaternary records provide an opportunity to examine the nature of the vegetation and fire responses to rapid past climate changes comparable in velocity and magnitude to those expected in the 21st century. The best documented examples of rapid climate change in the past are the warming events associated with the...
Groundwater quality in the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system, midwestern United States
Paul E. Stackelberg
2017, Fact Sheet 2017-3056
Groundwater provides nearly 50 percent of the Nation’s drinking water. To help protect this vital resource, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project assesses groundwater quality in aquifers that are important sources of drinking water (Burow and Belitz, 2014). The Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system constitutes one of the...
Regional water table (2016) in the Mojave River and Morongo groundwater basins, southwestern Mojave Desert, California
Meghan C. Dick, Adam Kjos
2017, Scientific Investigations Map 3391
From January to April 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Mojave Water Agency, and other local water districts made approximately 1,200 water-level measurements in about 645 wells located within 15 separate groundwater basins, collectively referred to as the Mojave River and Morongo groundwater basins. These data document recent conditions and, when...
Groundwater quality in the Rio Grande aquifer system, southwestern United States
MaryLynn Musgrove, Laura M. Bexfield
2017, Fact Sheet 2017-3047
Groundwater provides nearly 50 percent of the Nation’s drinking water. To help protect this vital resource, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project assesses groundwater quality in aquifers that are important sources of drinking water (Burow and Belitz, 2014). The Rio Grande aquifer system constitutes one of the...
Groundwater, surface-water, and water-chemistry data, Black Mesa area, northeastern Arizona—2013–2015
Jamie P. Macy, Jon P. Mason
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1127
The Navajo (N) aquifer is an extensive aquifer and the primary source of groundwater in the 5,400-square-mile Black Mesa area in northeastern Arizona. Availability of water is an important issue in northeastern Arizona because of continued water requirements for industrial and municipal use by a growing population and because of...
Analysis of the variability in ground-motion synthesis and inversion
Paul A. Spudich, Antonella Cirella, Laura Scognamiglio, Elisa Tinti
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1151
In almost all past inversions of large-earthquake ground motions for rupture behavior, the goal of the inversion is to find the “best fitting” rupture model that predicts ground motions which optimize some function of the difference between predicted and observed ground motions. This type of inversion was pioneered in the...
Groundwater quality in the Piedmont and Blue Ridge crystalline-rock aquifers, eastern United States
Bruce D. Lindsey
2017, Fact Sheet 2017-3040
Groundwater provides nearly 50 percent of the Nation’s drinking water. To help protect this vital resource, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project assesses groundwater quality in aquifers that are important sources of drinking water (Burow and Belitz, 2014). The Piedmont and Blue Ridge crystalline-rock aquifers constitute...
A prototype operational earthquake loss model for California based on UCERF3-ETAS – A first look at valuation
Edward H. Field, Keith Porter, Kevn Milner
2017, Earthquake Spectra (33) 1279-1299
We present a prototype operational loss model based on UCERF3-ETAS, which is the third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast with an Epidemic Type Aftershock Sequence (ETAS) component. As such, UCERF3-ETAS represents the first earthquake forecast to relax fault segmentation assumptions and to include multi-fault ruptures, elastic-rebound, and spatiotemporal clustering, all...
Ecosystem features determine seagrass community response to sea otter foraging
Margot Hessing-Lewis, Erin U. Rechsteiner, Brent B. Hughes, M. Tim Tinker, Zachary L. Monteith, Angeleen M. Olson, Matthew Morgan Henderson, Jane C. Watson
2017, Marine Pollution Bulletin (134) 134-144
Comparing sea otter recovery in California (CA) and British Columbia (BC) reveals key ecosystem properties that shape top-down effects in seagrass communities. We review potential ecosystem drivers of sea otter foraging in CA and BC seagrass beds, including the role of coastline complexity and environmental...
Navigating translational ecology: Creating opportunities for scientist participation
Lauren M. Hallett, Toni Lyn Morelli, Leah R. Gerber, Max A. Moritz, Mark W. Schwartz, Nathan L. Stephenson, Jennifer L. Tank, Matthew A. Williamson, Connie A. Woodhouse
2017, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (15) 578-586
Interest in translational ecology (TE) – a research approach that yields useful scientific outcomes through ongoing collaboration between scientists and stakeholders – is growing among both of these groups. Translational ecology brings together participants from different cultures and with different professional incentives. We address ways to cultivate a culture of...
Groundwater quality in the glacial aquifer system, United States
Paul E. Stackelberg
2017, Fact Sheet 2017-3055
Groundwater provides nearly 50 percent of the Nation’s drinking water. To help protect this vital resource, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project assesses groundwater quality in aquifers that are important sources of drinking water (Burow and Belitz, 2014). The glacial aquifer system constitutes one of the...
Considerations in comparing the U.S. Geological Survey one‐year induced‐seismicity hazard models with “Did You Feel It?” and instrumental data
Isabel White, Taojun Liu, Nico Luco, Abbie Liel
2017, Seismological Research Letters (89) 127-137
The recent steep increase in seismicity rates in Oklahoma, southern Kansas, and other parts of the central United States led the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to develop, for the first time, a probabilistic seismic hazard forecast for one year (2016) that incorporates induced seismicity. In this study, we explore a...
Feeding ecology and niche overlap of Lake Ontario offshore forage fish assessed with stable isotopes
James Mumby, Timothy Johson, Thomas Stewart, Edward Halfyard, Maureen Walsh, Brian Weidel, Jana Lantry, Aarron Fisk
2017, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (75) 759-771
The forage fish communities of the Laurentian Great Lakes continue to experience changes that have altered ecosystem structure, yet little is known about how they partition resources. Seasonal, spatial and body size variation in δ13C and δ15N was used to assess isotopic niche overlap and resource and habitat partitioning among...
Cooperative science to inform Lake Ontario management: Research from the 2013 Lake Ontario CSMI program
James M. Watkins, Brian Weidel, Aaron T. Fisk, Lars G. Rudstam
2017, Journal of Great Lakes Research (43) 779-781
Since the mid-1970s, successful Lake Ontario management actions including nutrient load and pollution reductions, habitat restoration, and fish stocking have improved Lake Ontario. However, several new obstacles to maintenance and restoration have emerged. This special issue presents management-relevant research from multiple agency surveys in 2011 and 2012 and the 2013...
Reply to the discussion of Pinter et al. on ‘Fluvial system response to late Pleistocene-Holocene sea-level change on Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park, California’ by Schumann et al. (2016)
R. Randall Schumann, Jeffrey S. Pigati
2017, Geomorphology (301) 144-146
We appreciate the thoughtful discussion offered by Pinter et al. (2017) because it gives us an opportunity to elucidate some of the main points of our study, address some apparent misinterpretations, and recapitulate one of our conclusions. Pinter et al.’s discussion emphasizes and reinforces some of the important concepts we...
Chemical elements in the environment: multi-element geochemical datasets from continental to national scale surveys on four continents
Patrice de Caritat, Clemens Reimann, David B. Smith, Xueqiu Wang
2017, Applied Geochemistry (89) 150-159
During the last 10-20 years, Geological Surveys around the world have undertaken a major effort towards delivering fully harmonized and tightly quality-controlled low-density multi-element soil geochemical maps and datasets of vast regions including up to whole continents. Concentrations of between 45 and 60 elements commonly have been determined in a...
Assessing diet compositions of Lake Ontario predators using fatty acid profiles of prey fishes
Austin Happell, Robert Pattridge, Jacques Rinchard, Maureen Walsh
2017, Journal of Great Lakes Research (43) 838-845
Fatty acid profiles are used in food web studies to assess trophic interactions between predator and prey. The present study provides the first comprehensive fatty acid dataset for important prey and predator species in Lake Ontario. Three major prey fish (alewife, rainbow smelt, and round goby) were collected at three...
Contaminant gradients in trees: Directional tree coring reveals boundaries of soil and soil-gas contamination with potential applications in vapor intrusion assessment
Jordan L. Wilson, V.A. Samaranayake, Matthew A. Limmer, John G. Schumacher, Joel G. Burken
2017, Environmental Science & Technology (51) 14055-14064
Contaminated sites pose ecological and human-health risks through exposure to contaminated soil and groundwater. Whereas we can readily locate, monitor, and track contaminants in groundwater, it is harder to perform these tasks in the vadose zone. In this study, tree-core samples were collected at a Superfund site to determine if...
Stratigraphic intervals for oil and tar sands deposits in the Uinta Basin, Utah
Ronald C. Johnson, Justin E. Birdwell, Paul G. Lillis
2017, Mountain Geologist (54) 227-265
No abstract available....
