Partial polygon pruning of hydrographic features in automated generalization
Alexander K. Stum, Barbara P. Buttenfield, Larry V. Stanislawski
2017, Transactions in GIS (21) 1061-1078
This paper demonstrates a working method to automatically detect and prune portions of waterbody polygons to support creation of a multi-scale hydrographic database. Water features are known to be sensitive to scale change; and thus multiple representations are required to maintain visual and geographic logic at smaller scales. Partial pruning...
Extinguishing a learned response in a free-ranging gray wolf (Canis lupus)
L. David Mech
2017, Canadian Field-Naturalist (131) 23-25
A free-ranging Gray Wolf (Canis lupus), habituated to human presence (the author) on Ellesmere Island, Canada, learned to anticipate experimental feeding by a human, became impatient, persistent, and bold and exhibited stalking behaviour toward the food source. Only after the author offered the wolf about 90 clumps of dry soil...
Systematic observations of the slip pulse properties of large earthquake ruptures
Diego Melgar, Gavin P. Hayes
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 9691-9698
In earthquake dynamics there are two end member models of rupture: propagating cracks and self-healing pulses. These arise due to different properties of faults and have implications for seismic hazard; rupture mode controls near-field strong ground motions. Past studies favor the pulse-like mode of rupture; however, due to a variety...
Projected warming portends seasonal shifts of stream temperatures in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem, USA and Canada
Leslie A. Jones, Clint C. Muhlfeld, Lucy A. Marshall
2017, Climatic Change (144) 641-655
Climate warming is expected to increase stream temperatures in mountainous regions of western North America, yet the degree to which future climate change may influence seasonal patterns of stream temperature is uncertain. In this study, a spatially explicit statistical model framework was integrated with empirical stream temperature data (approximately four...
Shear-wave velocity model from Rayleigh wave group velocities centered on the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta
Jon Peter B. Fletcher, Jemile Erdem
2017, Pure and Applied Geophysics (174) 3825-3839
Rayleigh wave group velocities obtained from ambient noise tomography are inverted for an upper crustal model of the Central Valley, California, centered on the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta. Two methods were tried; the first uses SURF96, a least-squares routine. It provides a good fit to the data, but convergence is dependent...
Delayed seismicity rate changes controlled by static stress transfer
Kayla A. Kroll, Keith B. Richards-Dinger, James H. Dieterich, Elizabeth S. Cochran
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth (122) 7951-7965
On 15 June 2010, a Mw5.7 earthquake occurred near Ocotillo, California, in the Yuha Desert. This event was the largest aftershock of the 4 April 2010 Mw7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah (EMC) earthquake in this region. The EMC mainshock and subsequent Ocotillo aftershock provide an opportunity to test the Coulomb failure hypothesis (CFS). We...
The nexus of fun and nutrition: Recreational fishing is also about food
Steven J. Cooke, William M. Twardek, Robert J. Lennox, Aaron J. Zolderdo, Shannon D. Bower, Lee F. G. Gutowsky, Andy J. Danylchuk, Robert Arlinghaus, Beard Jr.
2017, Fish and Fisheries (19) 2012-224
Recreational fishing is a popular activity in aquatic ecosystems around the globe using a variety of gears including rod and line and to a lesser extent handlines, spears, bow and arrow, traps and nets. Similar to the propensity to engage in voluntary catch-and-release, the propensity to harvest fishes strongly varies...
Buried shallow fault slip from the South Napa earthquake revealed by near-field geodesy
Benjamin A. Brooks, Sarah E. Minson, Craig L. Glennie, Johanna Nevitt, Timothy E. Dawson, Ron S. Rubin, Todd Ericksen, David A. Lockner, Kenneth W. Hudnut, Victoria E. Langenheim, Andrew Lutz, Jessica R. Murray, David P. Schwartz, Dana Zaccone
2017, Science Advances (3)
Earthquake-related fault slip in the upper hundreds of meters of Earth’s surface has remained largely unstudied because of challenges measuring deformation in the near field of a fault rupture. We analyze centimeter-scale accuracy mobile laser scanning (MLS) data of deformed vine rows within ±300 m of the principal surface expression...
Monitoring eradication of European mouflon sheep from the Kahuku Unit of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park
Seth Judge, Steven C. Hess, Jonathan K. Faford, Dexter Pacheco, Christina Leopold
2017, Pacific Science (71) 425-436
European mouflon (Ovis gmelini musimon), the world's smallest wild sheep, have proliferated and degraded fragile native ecosystems in the Hawaiian Islands through browsing, bark stripping, and trampling, including native forests within Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park (HAVO). HAVO resource managers initiated ungulate control efforts in the 469 km2 Kahuku Unit after it...
Implementing Nepal's national building code—A case study in patience and persistence
Lucy Arendt, Ayse Hortacsu, Kishor S. Jaiswal, John Bevington, Surya Shrestha, Forrest Lanning, Garmalia Mentor-William, Ghazala Naeem, Kate Thibert
2017, Earthquake Spectra (33) S167-S183
The April 2015 Gorkha Nepal earthquake revealed the relative effectiveness of the Nepal Standard, or national building code (NBC), and irregular compliance with it in different parts of Nepal. Much of the damage to more than half a million Nepal's residential structures may be attributed to the prevalence of owner-built...
An unparalleled opportunity for an important ecological study
L. David Mech, Shannon Barber-Meyer, Juan Carlos Blanco, Luigi Boitani, Ludwig N. Carbyn, Glenn D. DelGuidice, Steven H. Fritts, Djuro Huber, O. Liberg, Brent Patterson, Richard P. Thiel
2017, BioScience (67) 875-876
Wolves (Canis lupus) and moose (Alces americanus) have been studied since 1958 on 540-square-kilometer Isle Royale National Park, in Lake Superior. Wolves arrived there across the ice around 1949, and the population once increased to about 50, averaging about 25 annually (Mech 1966, Jordan et al. <a class="link...
Selective transport of palynomorphs in marine turbiditic deposits: An example from the Ascension-Monterey Canyon system offshore central California
Mary McGann
2017, Quaternary International (469) 120-140
The pollen assemblage of a deep-sea core (15G) collected at lower bathyal depths (3491 m) on a levee of Monterey Canyon off central California was investigated to gain insights into the delivery processes of terrigenous material to submarine fans and the effect this transport has on the palynological record. Thirty-two...
Applying citizen-science data and mark-recapture models to estimate numbers of migrant golden eagles in an important bird area in eastern North America
Andrew J. Dennhardt, Adam E. Duerr, David Brandes, Todd E. Katzner
2017, The Condor (119) 817-831
Estimates of population abundance are important to wildlife management and conservation. However, it can be difficult to characterize the numbers of broadly distributed, low-density, and elusive bird species. Although Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) are rare, difficult to detect, and broadly distributed, they are concentrated during their autumn migration at monitoring...
Shallow microearthquakes near Chongqing, China triggered by the Rayleigh waves of the 2015 M7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake
Libo Han, Zhigang Peng, Christopher W. Johnson, Frederick Pollitz, Lu Li, Baoshan Wang, Jing Wu, Qiang Li, Hongmei Wei
2017, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (479) 231-240
We present a case of remotely triggered seismicity in Southwest China by the 2015/04/25 M7.8 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake. A local magnitude ML3.8 event occurred near the Qijiang district south of Chongqing city approximately 12 min after the Gorkha mainshock. Within 30km of this ML3.8 event there are 62 earthquakes since...
Fractional crystallization-induced variations in sulfides from the Noril’sk-Talnakh mining district (polar Siberia, Russia)
C.J. Duran, S-J. Barnes, P. Plese, M. Kudrna Prasek, Michael L. Zientek, P. Page
2017, Ore Geology Reviews (90) 326-351
The distribution of platinum-group elements (PGE) within zoned magmatic ore bodies has been extensively studied and appears to be controlled by the partitioning behavior of the PGE during fractional crystallization of magmatic sulfide liquids. However, other chalcophile elements, especially TABS (Te, As, Bi, Sb, and Sn) have been neglected despite...
Where can wolves live and how can we live with them?
L. David Mech
2017, Biological Conservation (210) 310-317
In the contiguous 48 United States, southern Canada, and in Europe, wolves (Canis lupus) have greatly increased and expanded their range during the past few decades.They are prolific, disperse long distances, readily recolonize new areas where humans allow them, and are difficult to control when populations become established.Because wolves originally...
U.S. Geological Survey input-data forms for the assessment of the Spraberry Formation of the Midland Basin, Permian Basin Province, Texas, 2017
Kristen R. Marra
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1117
In 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed an updated assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in the Spraberry Formation of the Midland Basin (Permian Basin Province) in southwestern Texas (Marra and others, 2017). The Spraberry Formation was assessed using both the standard continuous (unconventional) and conventional...
Simulation of daily streamflow for 12 river basins in western Iowa using the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System
Daniel E. Christiansen, Adel E. Haj, John C. Risley
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5091
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, constructed Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System models to estimate daily streamflow for 12 river basins in western Iowa that drain into the Missouri River. The Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System is a deterministic, distributed-parameter, physical-process-based modeling system developed to evaluate the...
Geologic map of the Dusar area, Herat Province, Afghanistan; Modified from the 1973 original map compilations of V.I. Tarasenko and others
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1126
The geologic maps and cross sections presented in this report are redrafted and modified versions of the Geologic map and map of useful minerals of the Dusar area (scale 1:50,000) and Geologic sketch map of the Dusar and Namak-sory ore occurrences (scale 1:10,000), located in the Herat Province, Afghanistan. The...
Some results from ModEM3DMT, the freely available OSU 3D MT inversion code
Gary D. Egbert, Naser Meqbel, Anna Kelbert
2017, Conference Paper
At the 3DEM-5 workshop in 2013, we presented a paper entitled "ModEM: developing 3D EM inversion for the masses", outlining our then recent development of a modular system for inversion of EM geophysical data, called ModEM. As promised in that presentation, we made a version of the code that is...
Geographic variation in host fish use and larval metamorphosis for the endangered dwarf wedgemussel
Barbara St. John White, C. Paola Ferreri, William A. Lellis, Barry J. Wicklow, Jeffrey C. Cole
2017, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (27) 909-918
Host fishes play a crucial role in survival and dispersal of freshwater mussels (Unionoida), particularly rare unionids at conservation risk. Intraspecific variation in host use is not well understood for many mussels, including the endangered dwarf wedgemussel (Alasmidonta heterodon) in the USA.Host suitability of 33 fish...
Quantifying the effects of wildfire on changes in soil properties by surface burning of soils from the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory
Celeste Wieting, Brian A. Ebel, Kamini Singha
2017, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies (13) 43-57
Study regionThis study used intact soil cores collected at the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory near Boulder, Colorado, USA to explore fire impacts on soil properties.Study focusThree soil scenarios were considered: unburned control soils, and low- and high-temperature burned soils. We explored simulated fire...
Riverine discharges to Chesapeake Bay: Analysis of long-term (1927–2014) records and implications for future flows in the Chesapeake Bay basin
Karen C. Rice, Douglas L. Moyer, Aaron L. Mills
2017, Journal of Environmental Management (204) 246-254
The Chesapeake Bay (CB) basin is under a total maximum daily load (TMDL) mandate to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads to the bay. Identifying shifts in the hydro-climatic regime may help explain observed trends in water quality. To identify potential shifts, hydrologic data (1927–2014) for 27 watersheds in the...
Arctic deep-water ferromanganese-oxide deposits reflect the unique characteristics of the Arctic Ocean
James R. Hein, Natalia Konstantinova, Mariah Mikesell, Kira Mizell, Jessica N. Fitzsimmons, Phoebe Lam, Laramie T. Jensen, Yang Xiang, Amy Gartman, Georgy Cherkashov, Deborah Hutchinson, Claire P. Till
2017, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (18) 3771-3800
Little is known about marine mineral deposits in the Arctic Ocean, an ocean dominated by continental shelf and basins semi-closed to deep-water circulation. Here, we present data for ferromanganese crusts and nodules collected from the Amerasia Arctic Ocean in 2008, 2009, and 2012 (HLY0805, HLY0905, HLY1202). We determined...
Reconstructing the evolution of the submarine Monterey Canyon System from Os, Nd, and Pb isotopes in hydrogenetic Fe-Mn crusts
T.A. Conrad, S.G. Nielsen, Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink, J. Blusztajn, D. Winslow, James R. Hein, A. Paytan
2017, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (18) 3946-3963
The sources of terrestrial material delivered to the California margin over the past 7 Myr were assessed using 187Os/188Os, Nd, and Pb isotopes in hydrogenetic ferromanganese crusts from three seamounts along the central and southern California margin. From 6.8 to 4.5 (± 0.5) Ma, all three isotope systems show more radiogenic...
