Subsurface volatile content of martian double-layer ejecta (DLE) craters
Donna Viola, Alfred S. McEwen, Colin M. Dundas, Shane Byrne
2017, Icarus (284) 325-343
Excess ice is widespread throughout the martian mid-latitudes, particularly in Arcadia Planitia, where double-layer ejecta (DLE) craters also tend to be abundant. In this region, we observe the presence of thermokarstically-expanded secondary craters that likely form from impacts that destabilize a subsurface layer of excess ice, which subsequently sublimates. The...
Nationwide reconnaissance of contaminants of emerging concern in source and treated drinking waters of the United States
Susan T. Glassmeyer, Edward T. Furlong, Dana W. Kolpin, Angela L. Batt, Robert Benson, J. Scott Boone, Octavia D. Conerly, Maura J. Donohue, Dawn N. King, Mitchell S. Kostich, Heath E. Mash, Stacy Pfaller, Kathleen M. Schenck, Jane Ellen Simmons, Eunice A. Varughese, Stephen J. Vesper, Eric N. Villegas, Vickie S. Wilson
2017, Science of the Total Environment (581-582) 909-922
When chemical or microbial contaminants are assessed for potential effect or possible regulation in ambient and drinking waters, a critical first step is determining if the contaminants occur and if they are at concentrations that may cause human or ecological health concerns. To this end,...
Role of raptors in contaminant research
Charles J. Henny
2017, Book chapter, The history of Patuxent: America’s wildlife research story (U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1422)
This chapter reviews the history of and approaches used in studies focused on the effects of contaminants on raptors and raptor populations at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (Patuxent) in Laurel, MD. Worldwide raptor declines following World War II were unprecedented and resulted in a sequence of major efforts at...
Solving for source parameters using nested array data: A case study from the Canterbury, New Zealand earthquake sequence
Corrie Neighbors, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Kenneth Ryan, Anna E. Kaiser
2017, Pure and Applied Geophysics (174) 875-893
The seismic spectrum can be constructed by assuming a Brune spectral model and estimating the parameters of seismic moment (M0), corner frequency (fc), and high-frequency site attenuation (κ). Using seismic data collected during the 2010–2011 Canterbury, New Zealand, earthquake sequence, we apply the non-linear...
Unusual geologic evidence of coeval seismic shaking and tsunamis shows variability in earthquake size and recurrence in the area of the giant 1960 Chile earthquake
M. Cisternas, E Garrett, Robert L. Wesson, T. Dura, L. L Ely
2017, Marine Geology (385) 101-113
An uncommon coastal sedimentary record combines evidence for seismic shaking and coincident tsunami inundation since AD 1000 in the region of the largest earthquake recorded instrumentally: the giant 1960 southern Chile earthquake (Mw 9.5). The record reveals significant variability in the size and recurrence of megathrust earthquakes and ensuing tsunamis...
Large earthquakes and creeping faults
Ruth A. Harris
2017, Reviews of Geophysics (55) 169-198
Faults are ubiquitous throughout the Earth's crust. The majority are silent for decades to centuries, until they suddenly rupture and produce earthquakes. With a focus on shallow continental active-tectonic regions, this paper reviews a subset of faults that have a different behavior. These unusual faults slowly creep for long periods...
Estimating regional-scale permeability–depth relations in a fractured-rock terrain using groundwater-flow model calibration
Ward E. Sanford
2017, Hydrogeology Journal (25) 405-419
The trend of decreasing permeability with depth was estimated in the fractured-rock terrain of the upper Potomac River basin in the eastern USA using model calibration on 200 water-level observations in wells and 12 base-flow observations in subwatersheds. Results indicate that permeability at the 1–10 km scale (for groundwater flowpaths) decreases...
Land-use change and managed aquifer recharge effects on the hydrogeochemistry of two contrasting atoll island aquifers, Roi-Namur Island, Republic of the Marshall Islands
Mehrdad Hejazian, Jason J. Gurdak, Peter W. Swarzenski, Kingsley Odigie, Curt D. Storlazzi
2017, Applied Geochemistry (80) 58-71
Freshwater resources on low-lying atoll islands are highly vulnerable to climate change and sea-level rise. In addition to rainwater catchment, groundwater in the freshwater lens is a critically important water resource on many atoll islands, especially during drought. Although many atolls have high annual rainfall rates, dense natural vegetation...
Low pathogenic avian influenza viruses in wild migratory waterfowl in a region of high poultry production, Delmarva, Maryland
Diann J. Prosser, Christine L. Densmore, Larry J. Hindman, Deborah D. Iwanowicz, Christopher A. Ottinger, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Cindy P. Driscoll, Jessica L. Nagel
2017, Avian Diseases (61) 128-134
Migratory waterfowl are natural reservoirs for low pathogenic avian influenza viruses (AIVs) and may contribute to the long-distance dispersal of these pathogens as well as spillover into domestic bird populations. Surveillance for AIVs is critical to assessing risks for potential spread of these viruses among wild and domestic bird populations....
Managing native predators: Evidence from a partial removal of raccoons (Procyon lotor) on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, USA
Jessica J. Stocking, Theodore R. Simons, Arielle W. Parsons, Allan F. O’Connell
2017, Waterbirds (40) 10-18
Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are important predators of ground-nesting species in coastal systems. They have been identified as a primary cause of nest failure for the American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) throughout its range. Concerns over the long-term effects of raccoon predation and increased nest success following a hurricane inspired a mark-resight...
Mercury exposure may influence fluctuating asymmetry in waterbirds
Garth Herring, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Joshua T. Ackerman
2017, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (36) 1599-1605
Variation in avian bilateral symmetry can be an indicator of developmental instability in response to a variety of stressors, including environmental contaminants. The authors used composite measures of fluctuating asymmetry to examine the influence of mercury concentrations in 2 tissues on fluctuating asymmetry within 4 waterbird species. Fluctuating asymmetry increased...
Nocturnal insect availability in bottomland hardwood forests managed for wildlife in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley
Loraine P. Ketzler, Christopher Comer, Daniel J. Twedt
2017, Forest Ecology and Management (391) 127-134
Silviculture used to alter forest structure and thereby enhance wildlife habitat has been advocated for bottomland hardwood forest management on public conservation lands in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Although some songbirds respond positively to these management actions to attain desired forest conditions for wildlife, the response of other species, is...
Characterization of the quality of water, bed sediment, and fish in Mittry Lake, Arizona, 2014–15
Edyth Hermosillo, Alissa L. Coes
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5008
Water, bed-sediment, and fish sampling was conducted in Mittry Lake, Arizona, in 2014–15 to establish current water-quality conditions of the lake. The parameters of temperature, dissolved-oxygen concentration, specific conductance, and alkalinity were measured in the field. Water samples were collected and analyzed for dissolved major ions, dissolved trace elements, dissolved...
Surface geophysical methods for characterising frozen ground in transitional permafrost landscapes
Martin A. Briggs, Seth Campbell, Jay Nolan, Michelle Ann Walvoord, Dimitrios Ntarlagiannis, Frederick D. Day-Lewis, John W. Lane Jr.
2017, Permafrost and Periglacial Processes (28) 52-65
The distribution of shallow frozen ground is paramount to research in cold regions, and is subject to temporal and spatial changes influenced by climate, landscape disturbance and ecosystem succession. Remote sensing from airborne and satellite platforms is increasing our understanding of landscape-scale permafrost distribution, but typically lacks the resolution to...
Advancing the match-mismatch framework for large herbivores in the Arctic: Evaluating the evidence for a trophic mismatch in caribou
David D. Gustine, Perry Barboza, Layne G. Adams, Brad Griffith, Raymond D. Cameron, Kenneth R. Whitten
2017, PLoS ONE (12) 1-18
Climate-induced shifts in plant phenology may adversely affect animals that cannot or do not shift the timing of their reproductive cycle. The realized effect of potential trophic “mismatches” between a consumer and its food varies with the degree to which species rely on dietary income and stored capital. Large Arctic...
Sources and dispersal of land-based runoff from small Hawaiian drainages to a coral reef: Insights from geochemical signatures
Renee K. Takesue, Curt D. Storlazzi
2017, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (188) 69-80
Land-based sediment and contaminant runoff is a major threat to coral reefs, and runoff reduction efforts would benefit from knowledge of specific runoff sources. Geochemical signatures of small drainage basins were determined in the fine fraction of soil and sediment, then used in the nearshore region of a coral reef-fringed...
Northern bobwhite breeding season ecology on a reclaimed surface mine
Jarred M. Brooke, Evan P. Tanner, David C. Peters, Ashley M. Tanner, Craig A. Harper, Patrick D. Keyser, Joseph D. Clark, John J. Morgan
2017, Journal of Wildlife Management (81) 73-85
Surface coal mining and subsequent reclamation of surface mines have converted large forest areas into early successional vegetative communities in the eastern United States. This reclamation can provide a novel opportunity to conserve northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus). We evaluated the influence of habitat management activities on nest survival, nest-site selection,...
Autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) presence and proliferation on former surface coal mines in Eastern USA
Adam J. Oliphant, R.H. Wynne, Carl E. Zipper, W. Mark Ford, P. F. Donovan, Jing Li
2017, Biological Invasions (19) 179-195
Invasive plants threaten native plant communities. Surface coal mines in the Appalachian Mountains are among the most disturbed landscapes in North America, but information about land cover characteristics of Appalachian mined lands is lacking. The invasive shrub autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) occurs on these sites and interferes with...
Relations of alpine plant communities across environmental gradients: Multilevel versus multiscale analyses
George P. Malanson, Dale L. Zimmerman, Mitch Kinney, Daniel B. Fagre
2017, Annals of the Association of American Geographers (107) 41-53
Alpine plant communities vary, and their environmental covariates could influence their response to climate change. A single multilevel model of how alpine plant community composition is determined by hierarchical relations is compared to a separate examination of those relations at different scales. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling of species cover for plots...
The relative contribution of waves, tides, and nontidal residuals to extreme total water levels on U.S. West Coast sandy beaches
Katherine A. Serafin, Peter Ruggiero, Hilary F. Stockdon
2017, Geophysical Research Letters (44) 1839-1847
To better understand how individual processes combine to cause flooding and erosion events, we investigate the relative contribution of tides, waves, and nontidal residuals to extreme total water levels (TWLs) at the shoreline of U.S. West Coast sandy beaches. Extreme TWLs, defined as the observed annual maximum event and the...
Rapid carbon loss and slow recovery following permafrost thaw in boreal peatlands
Miriam C. Jones, Jennifer W. Harden, Jonathan A. O’Donnell, Kristen L. Manies, M. Torre Jorgenson, Claire C. Treat, Stephanie Ewing
2017, Global Change Biology (23) 1109-1127
Permafrost peatlands store one-third of the total carbon (C) in the atmosphere and are increasingly vulnerable to thaw as high-latitude temperatures warm. Large uncertainties remain about C dynamics following permafrost thaw in boreal peatlands. We used a chronosequence approach to measure C stocks in forested permafrost plateaus (forest) and thawed...
Recalibration of the Mars Science Laboratory ChemCam instrument with an expanded geochemical database
Samuel M. Clegg, Roger C. Wiens, Ryan B. Anderson, Olivier Forni, Jens Frydenvang, Jeremie Lasue, Agnes Cousin, Valerie Payre, Tommy Boucher, M. Darby Dyar, Scott M. McLennan, Richard V. Morris, Trevor G. Graff, Stanley A Mertzman, Bethany L. Ehlmann, Ines Belgacem, Horton E. Newsom, Ben C. Clark, Noureddine Melikechi, Alissa Mezzacappa, Rhonda E. McInroy, Ronald Martinez, Patrick J. Gasda, Olivier Gasnault, Sylvestre Maurice
2017, Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy (129) 64-85
The ChemCam Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument onboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Curiosity has obtained > 300,000 spectra of rock and soil analysis targets since landing at Gale Crater in 2012, and the spectra represent perhaps the largest publicly-available LIBS datasets. The compositions of the major elements, reported as...
Winter 2016, Part B—Coastal oblique aerial photographs collected from Assateague Island, Virginia, to Montauk Point, New York, March 8–9, 2016
Karen L. M. Morgan
2017, Data Series 1030
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as part of the National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards project, conducts baseline and storm-response photography missions to document and understand the changes in the vulnerability of the Nation's coasts to extreme storms. On March 8–9, 2016, the USGS conducted an oblique aerial photographic survey...
Winter 2016, Part A—Coastal oblique aerial photographs collected from the South Carolina/North Carolina border to Assateague Island, Virginia, February 18–19, 2016
Karen L. M. Morgan
2017, Data Series 1029
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as part of the National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards project, conducts baseline and storm-response photography missions to document and understand the changes in the vulnerability of the Nation's coasts to extreme storms. On February 18–19, 2016, the USGS conducted an oblique aerial photographic survey...
Preparing future fisheries professionals to make good decisions
Michael E. Colvin, James Peterson
2017, Fisheries (41) 473-474
Future fisheries professionals will face decision-making challenges in an increasingly complex field of fisheries management. Though fisheries students are well trained in the use of the scientific method to understand the natural world, they are rarely exposed to structured decision making (SDM) as part of an undergraduate or graduate education....
