Coastal single-beam bathymetry data collected in 2015 from the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana
Chelsea A. Stalk, Nancy T. DeWitt, Julie Bernier, Jack G. Kindinger, James G. Flocks, Jennifer L. Miselis, Stanley D. Locker, Kyle W. Kelso, Thomas M. Tuten
2017, Data Series 1039
As part of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) Barrier Island Comprehensive Monitoring Program, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center conducted a single-beam bathymetry survey around the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, in June 2015. The goal of the program is to...
USA National Phenology Network gridded products documentation
Theresa M. Crimmins, R. Lee Marsh, Jeff R. Switzer, Michael A. Crimmins, Katharine L. Gerst, Alyssa H. Rosemartin, Jake F. Weltzin
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1003
The goals of the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN, www.usanpn.org) are to advance science, inform decisions, and communicate and connect with the public regarding phenology and species’ responses to environmental variation and climate change. The USA-NPN seeks to facilitate informed ecosystem stewardship and management by providing phenological information...
Hydrology and water quality in 13 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia, 2001–15
Brent T. Aulenbach, John K. Joiner, Jaime A. Painter
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5012
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources, established a Long-Term Trend Monitoring (LTTM) program in 1996. The LTTM program is a comprehensive, long-term, water-quantity and water-quality monitoring program designed to document and analyze the hydrologic and water-quality conditions of selected watersheds in Gwinnett...
Early action to address an emerging wildlife disease
M. J. Adams, M. Camille Harris, Daniel A. Grear
2017, Fact Sheet 2017-3013
A deadly fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) that affects amphibian skin was discovered during a die-off of European fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra) in 2014. This pathogen has the potential to worsen already severe worldwide amphibian declines. Bsal is a close relative to another fungal disease known as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis...
Processing and review interface for strong motion data (PRISM) software, version 1.0.0—Methodology and automated processing
Jeanne Jones, Erol Kalkan, Christopher Stephens
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1008
A continually increasing number of high-quality digital strong-motion records from stations of the National Strong-Motion Project (NSMP) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as well as data from regional seismic networks within the United States, call for automated processing of strong-motion records with human review limited to selected significant...
Environmental signatures and effects of an oil and gas wastewater spill in the Williston Basin, North Dakota
Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Katherine Skalak, D.B. Kent, Mark A. Engle, Adam J. Benthem, Adam Mumford, Karl B. Haase, Aida M. Farag, David Harper, S. C. Nagel, Luke R. Iwanowicz, William H. Orem, Denise M. Akob, Jeanne B. Jaeschke, Joel M. Galloway, Matthias Kohler, Deborah L. Stoliker, Glenn D. Jolly
2017, Science of the Total Environment (579) 1781-1793
Wastewaters from oil and gas development pose largely unknown risks to environmental resources. In January 2015, 11.4 M L (million liters) of wastewater (300 g/L TDS) from oil production in the Williston Basin was reported to have leaked from a pipeline, spilling into Blacktail Creek, North Dakota. Geochemical and biological samples were collected...
Systematic comparisons between PRISM version 1.0.0, BAP, and CSMIP ground-motion processing
Erol Kalkan, Christopher Stephens
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1020
A series of benchmark tests was run by comparing results of the Processing and Review Interface for Strong Motion data (PRISM) software version 1.0.0 to Basic Strong-Motion Accelerogram Processing Software (BAP; Converse and Brady, 1992), and to California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (CSMIP) processing (Shakal and others, 2003, 2004)....
A life cycle database for parasitic acanthocephalans, cestodes, and nematodes
Daniel P. Benesh, Kevin D. Lafferty, Armand Kuris
2017, Ecology (98) 882-882
Parasitologists have worked out many complex life cycles over the last ~150 years, yet there have been few efforts to synthesize this information to facilitate comparisons among taxa. Most existing host-parasite databases focus on particular host taxa, do not distinguish final from intermediate hosts, and lack parasite life-history information. We...
Hydrogeologic and geochemical characterization and evaluation of two arroyos for managed aquifer recharge by surface infiltration in the Pojoaque River Basin, Santa Fe County, New Mexico, 2014–15
Andrew J. Robertson, Jeffrey Cordova, Andrew Teeple, Jason Payne, Rob Carruth
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2017-5007
In order to provide long-term storage of diverted surface water from the Rio Grande as part of the Aamodt water rights settlement, managed aquifer recharge by surface infiltration in Pojoaque River Basin arroyos was proposed as an option. The initial hydrogeologic and geochemical characterization of two arroyos located within the...
Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program—2016 year in review
John F. Organ, John D. Thompson, Donald E. Dennerline, Dawn E. Childs
2017, Circular 1424
SummaryThe Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units (CRU) Program had a productive year in 2016. Despite vacancies in our scientist ranks exceeding 20 percent, our research, training, and teaching portfolio was full and we graduated 93 students and published 398 manuscripts primarily focused on addressing the real conservation challenges of...
Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program—2016 year in review postcard
John F. Organ, John D. Thompson, Don E. Dennerline, Dawn E. Childs
2017, General Information Product 170
Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program—2016 Year in Review postcardThis postcard provides details about the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units (CRU) Program—2016 Year in Review, Circular 1424. This Circular provides information relating to fish and wildlife science, students, staffing, vacancies, research funding, outreach and training, science themes, background...
Record-high specific conductance and water temperature in San Francisco Bay during water year 2015
Paul A. Work, Maureen A. Downing-Kunz, Daniel N. Livsey
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1022
The San Francisco estuary is commonly defined to include San Francisco Bay (bay) and the adjacent Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta (delta). The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has operated a high-frequency (15-minute sampling interval) water-quality monitoring network in San Francisco Bay since the late 1980s (Buchanan and others, 2014). This network...
Electrical guidance efficiency of downstream-migrating juvenile Sea Lamprey decreases with increasing water velocity
Scott M. Miehls, Nicholas S. Johnson, Alexander Haro
2017, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (146) 299-307
We tested the efficacy of a vertically oriented field of pulsed direct current (VEPDC) created by an array of vertical electrodes for guiding downstream-moving juvenile Sea Lampreys Petromyzon marinus to a bypass channel in an artificial flume at water velocities of 10–50 cm/s. Sea Lampreys were more likely to be...
Sediment transport in the presence of large reef bottom roughness
Andrew Pomeroy, Ryan J. Lowe, Marco Ghisalberti, Curt D. Storlazzi, Graham Symonds, Dano Roelvink
2017, Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans (122) 1347-1368
The presence of large bottom roughness, such as that formed by benthic organisms on coral reef flats, has important implications for the size, concentration, and transport of suspended sediment in coastal environments. A 3 week field study was conducted in approximately 1.5 m water depth on the reef flat at...
Influence of road network and population demand assumptions in evacuation modeling for distant tsunamis
Kevin Henry, Nathan J. Wood, Tim G. Frazier
2017, Natural Hazards (85) 1665-1687
Tsunami evacuation planning in coastal communities is typically focused on local events where at-risk individuals must move on foot in a matter of minutes to safety. Less attention has been placed on distant tsunamis, where evacuations unfold over several hours, are often dominated by vehicle use and are managed by...
Characterization of streamflow, suspended sediment, and nutrients entering Galveston Bay from the Trinity River, Texas, May 2014–December 2015
Zulimar Lucena, Michael T. Lee
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5177
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Texas Water Development Board and the Galveston Bay Estuary Program, collected streamflow and water-quality data at USGS streamflow-gaging stations in the lower Trinity River watershed from May 2014 to December 2015 to characterize and improve the current understanding of the quantity...
Analysis of trends of water quality and streamflow in the Blackstone, Branch, Pawtuxet, and Pawcatuck Rivers, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, 1979 to 2015
Jennifer G. Savoie, John R. Mullaney, Gardner C. Bent
2017, Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5178
Trends in long-term water-quality and streamflow data from six water-quality-monitoring stations within three major river basins in Massachusetts and Rhode Island that flow into Narragansett Bay and Little Narragansett Bay were evaluated for water years 1979–2015. In this study, conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Rhode...
Assessment of Permian coalbed gas resources of the Karoo Basin Province, South Africa and Lesotho, 2016
Christopher J. Schenk, Michael E. Brownfield, Marilyn E. Tennyson, Timothy R. Klett, Tracey J. Mercier, Sarah J. Hawkins, Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Kristen R. Marra, Thomas M. Finn, Phuong A. Le, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller
2017, Fact Sheet 2016-3103
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 5.27 trillion cubic feet of coalbed gas in the Karoo Basin Province....
Long-term fish monitoring in large rivers: Utility of “benchmarking” across basins
David L. Ward, Andrew F. Casper, Timothy D. Counihan, Jennifer M. Bayer, Ian R. Waite, John J. Kosovich, Colin Chapman, Elise R. Irwin, Jennifer S. Sauer, Brian Ickes, Alexa McKerrow
2017, Fisheries (42) 100-114
In business, benchmarking is a widely used practice of comparing your own business processes to those of other comparable companies and incorporating identified best practices to improve performance. Biologists and resource managers designing and conducting monitoring programs for fish in large river systems tend to focus on single river basins...
Flammability as an ecological and evolutionary driver
Juli G. Pausas, Jon E. Keeley, Dylan W. Schwilk
2017, Journal of Ecology (105) 289-297
We live on a flammable planet yet there is little consensus on the origin and evolution of flammability in our flora.We argue that part of the problem lies in the concept of flammability, which should not be viewed as a single quantitative trait or metric. Rather, we...
Species interactions and the effects of climate variability on a wetland amphibian metacommunity
Courtney L. Davis, David A.W. Miller, Susan C. Walls, William J. Barichivich, Jeffrey W. Riley, Mary E. Brown
2017, Ecological Applications (27) 285-296
Disentangling the role that multiple interacting factors have on species responses to shifting climate poses a significant challenge. However, our ability to do so is of utmost importance to predict the effects of climate change on species distributions. We examined how populations of three species of wetland-breeding amphibians, which varied...
Landslide kinematics and their potential controls from hourly to decadal timescales: Insights from integrating ground-based InSAR measurements with structural maps and long-term monitoring data
William H. Schulz, Jeffrey A. Coe, P.P Ricci, Gregory M. Smoczyk, Brett L Shurtleff, J Panosky
2017, Geomorphology (285) 121-136
Knowledge of kinematics is rudimentary for understanding landslide controls and is increasingly valuable with greater spatiotemporal coverage. However, characterizing landslide-wide kinematics is rare, especially at broadly ranging timescales. We used highly detailed kinematic data obtained using photogrammetry and field mapping during the 1980s and 1990s and our 4.3-day ground-based InSAR...
Amphibian dynamics in constructed ponds on a wildlife refuge: developing expected responses to hydrological restoration
Blake R. Hossack
2017, Hydrobiologia (790) 23-33
Management actions are based upon predictable responses. To form expected responses to restoration actions, I estimated habitat relationships and trends (2002–2015) for four pond-breeding amphibians on a wildlife refuge (Montana, USA) where changes to restore historical hydrology to the system greatly expanded (≥8 times) the flooded area of the primary...
The importance of building construction materials relative to other factors affecting structure survival during wildfire
Alexandra D. Syphard, Teresa J. Brennan, Jon E. Keeley
2017, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (21) 140-147
Structure loss to wildfire is a serious problem in wildland-urban interface areas across the world. Laboratory experiments suggest that fire-resistant building construction and design could be important for reducing structure destruction, but these need to be evaluated under real wildfire conditions, especially relative to other factors. Using empirical data from...
Female-biased sex ratio, polygyny, and persistence in the endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus)
Barbara E. Kus, Scarlett L. Howell, Dustin A. Wood
2017, The Condor (119) 17-25
Demographic changes in populations, such as skewed sex ratios, are of concern to conservationists, especially in small populations in which stochastic and other events can produce declines leading to extirpation. We documented a decline in one of the few remaining populations of Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) in southern...
