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USGS2013

Ecosystem services: developing sustainable management paradigms based on wetland functions and processes

In the late nineteenth century and twentieth century, there was considerable interest and activity to develop the United States for agricultural, mining, and many other purposes to improve the quality of human life standards and prosperity. Most of the work to support this development was focused along disciplinary lines with little attention focused on ecosystem service trade-offs or synergisms, especially those that transcended boundaries of scientific disciplines and specific interest groups. Concurrently, human population size has increased substantially and its use of ecosystem services has increased more than five-fold over just the past century. Consequently, the contemporary landscape has been highly modified for human use, leaving behind a fragmented landscape where basic ecosystem functions and processes have been broadly altered. Over this period, climate change also interacted with other anthropogenic effects, resulting in modern environmental problems having a complexity that is without historical precedent. The challenge before the scientific community is to develop new science paradigms that integrate relevant scientific disciplines to properly frame and evaluate modern environmental problems in a systems-type approach to better inform the decision-making process. Wetland science is a relatively new discipline that grew out of the conservation movement of the early twentieth century. In the United States, most of the conservation attention in the earlier days was on wildlife, but a growing human awareness of the importance of the environment led to the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act in 1969. Concurrently, there was a broadening interest in conservation science, and the scientific study of wetlands gradually gained acceptance as a scientific discipline. Pioneering wetland scientists became formally organized when they formed The Society of Wetland Scientists in 1980 and established a publication outlet to share wetland research findings. In comparison to older and more traditional scientific disciplines, the wetland sciences may be better equipped to tackle today’s complex problems. Since its emergence as a scientific discipline, the study of wetlands has frequently required interdisciplinary and integrated approaches. This interdisciplinary/integrated approach is largely the result of the fact that wetlands cannot be studied in isolation of upland areas that contribute surface and subsurface water, solutes, sediments, and nutrients into wetland basins. However, challenges still remain in thoroughly integrating the wetland sciences with scientific disciplines involved in upland studies, especially those involved with agriculture, development, and other land-conversion activities that influence wetland hydrology, chemistry, and sedimentation. One way to facilitate this integration is to develop an understanding of how human activities affect wetland ecosystem services, especially the trade-offs and synergisms that occur when land-use changes are made. Used in this context, an understanding of the real costs of managing for a particular ecosystem service or groups of services can be determined and quantified in terms of reduced delivery of other services and in overall sustainability of the wetland and the landscapes that support them. In this chapter, we discuss some of the more salient aspects of a few common wetland types to give the reader some background on the diversity of functions that wetlands perform and the specific ecosystem services they provide to society. Wetlands are among the most complex ecosystems on the planet, and it is often difficult to communicate to a diverse public all of the positive services wetlands provide to mankind. Our goal is to help the reader develop an understanding that management options can be approached as societal choices where decisions can be made within a spatial and temporal context to identify trade-offs, synergies, and effects on long-term sustainability of wetland ecosystems. This will be especially relevant as we move into alternate climate futures where our portfolio of management options for mitigating damage to ecosystem function or detrimental cascading effects must be diverse and effective.

Book chapter↗

USGS2014

Sources and sinks of carbon in boreal ecosystems of interior Alaska: a review

Boreal regions store large quantities of carbon but are increasingly vulnerable to carbon loss due to disturbance and climate warming. The boreal region, underlain by discontinuous permafrost, presents a challenging landscape for itemizing current and potential carbon sources and sinks in the boreal soil and vegetation. The roles of fire, forest succession, and the presence (or absence) of permafrost on carbon cycle, vegetation, and hydrologic processes have been the focus of multidisciplinary research in this area for the past 20 years. However, projections of a warming future climate, an increase in fire severity and extent, and the potential degradation of permafrost could lead to major landscape process changes over the next 20 to 50 years. This provides a major challenge for predicting how the interplay between land management activities and impacts of climate warming will affect carbon sources and sinks in Interior Alaska. To assist land managers in adapting and managing for potential changes in the Interior Alaska carbon cycle we developed this review paper incorporating an overview of the climate, ecosystem processes, vegetation types, and soil regimes in Interior Alaska with a focus on ramifications for the carbon cycle. Our objective is to provide a synthesis of the most current carbon storage estimates and measurements to support policy and land management decisions on how to best manage carbon sources and sinks in Interior Alaska. To support this we have surveyed relevant peer reviewed estimates of carbon stocks in aboveground and belowground biomass for Interior Alaska boreal ecosystems. We have also summarized methane and carbon dioxide fluxes from the same ecosystems. These data have been converted into the same units to facilitate comparison across ecosystem compartments. We identify potential changes in the carbon cycle with climate change and human disturbance including how compounding disturbances can affect the boreal system. Finally, we provide recommendations to address the challenges facing land managers in efforts to manage carbon cycle processes. The results of this study can be used for carbon cycle management in other locations within the boreal biome which encompass a broad distribution from 45° to 83° north.

Alaska↗

USGS2017

Satellite-based water use dynamics using historical Landsat data (1984–2014) in the southwestern United States

Remote sensing-based field-scale evapotranspiration (ET) maps are useful for characterizing water use patterns and assessing crop performance. The relative impact of climate variability and water management decisions are better studied and quantified using historical data that are derived using a set of consistent datasets and methodology. Historical (1984–2014) Landsat-based ET maps were generated for major irrigation districts in California, i.e., Palo Verde and eight other sub-basins in parts of the middle and lower Central Valley. A total of 3396 Landsat images were processed using the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) model that integrates weather and remotely sensed images to estimate monthly and annual ET within the study sites over the 31 years. Model output evaluation and validation using gridded-flux data and water balance ET approaches indicated relatively good correspondence (R 2 up to 0.88, root mean square error as low as 14 mm/month) between SSEBop ET and validation datasets. In a pairwise comparison, annual variability of agro-hydrologic parameters of actual evapotranspiration ( ET a ), land surface temperature ( T s ), and runoff ( Q ) were found to be more variable than their corresponding climatic counterparts of atmospheric water demand ( ET o ), air temperature ( T a ), and precipitation ( P ), revealing process differences between regional climatic drivers and localized agro-hydrologic responses. However, only T a showed a consistent increase (up to 1.2 K) over study sites during the 31 years, whereas other climate variables such as ET o and P showed a generally neutral trend. This study demonstrates a useful application of “Big Data” science where large volumes of historical Landsat and weather datasets were used to quantify and understand the relative importance of water management and climate variability in crop water use dynamics in regards to the linkages among water management decisions, hydrologic processes and economic transactions. Irrigation district-wide ET a estimates were used to compute historical crop water use volumes and monetary equivalents of water savings for the Palo Verde Irrigation District (PVID). During the peak crop fallowing year in PVID, the water saved reached a maximum of ~ 107,200 acre-feet in 2011 with an estimated monetary payout value of $20.5 million. A significant decreasing trend in actual ET despite an increasing atmospheric demand in PVID highlights the role of management decisions in affecting local hydrologic processes. This study has importance for planning water resource allocation, managing water rights, sustaining agricultural production, and quantifying impacts of climate and land use/land cover changes on water resources. With increased computational efficiency, similar studies can be conducted in other parts of the world to help policy and decision makers understand and quantify various aspects of water resources management.

Arizona, California↗

USGS2023

The blue carbon reservoirs from Maine to Long Island, NY

In response to the New England Governor and Eastern Canadian Premier 2017 Climate Change Action Plan recommendation to “manage blue carbon resources to preserve and enhance their existing carbon reservoirs,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) convened a New England Blue Carbon Inventory Workgroup, comprised of a variety of federal, state, academic, and non-profit organizations to develop an inventory of blue carbon stocks from Maine to Long Island, New York. The Workgroup focused its inventory efforts on salt marshes and eelgrass meadows, leveraging existing habitat maps for geographic data. Existing data for soil organic carbon stocks were then used to calculate blue carbon stock estimates. For visual display purposes, sediment carbon heat maps were developed to highlight areas of greatest carbon accumulation. The habitat distribution and sediment carbon heat maps can be accessed on the Northeast Ocean Data Portal (www.northeastoceandata.org/eelgrass) which is a public source of expert-reviewed, interactive maps and data on the ocean ecosystem, economy, and culture of the northeastern United States and can be used to facilitate decision making by government agencies, tribal nations, businesses, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academic institutions, and individuals. Based on available data and Workgroup calculations, the target geographic area has an estimated 218,222 acres of eelgrass meadows, salt marsh and saline Phragmites, which are estimated to provide a reservoir of 7,523,568 megagrams of blue carbon, or the equivalent to the annual carbon emissions from over 5,944,024 passenger vehicles. Due to data limitations, the carbon stock estimate represents a mere fraction of the actual quantity of accumulated carbon in these habitats. The findings from the Workgroup’s efforts and the resulting map products can help inform land and coastal management policies, fisheries management, and climate change mitigation practices. Further refinements and expansion of data are needed, including more detailed habitat maps, deeper soil core data for soil organic carbon content, and inclusion of more marine flora into calculations.

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, ↗

USGS2023

Development of a Surface-Water Index of Permanence to assess surface-water availability for ecohydrological refugia

Surface-water availability has major implications for the environment and society in the 21st century. With climate change, increased drought severity, and altered water and land use, future water availability is predicted to continue to decline in many areas, including much of the western United States. An understanding of where and when water will be available at multiple scales is crucial for the planning and management of wildlife health, recreation, and energy development. Currently, indices describing water presence and permanence exist for specific surface-water components (for example, streams and wetlands); however, a general surface-water permanence index that includes all major surface-water components is lacking. Developing a Surface-Water Index of Permanence can provide a reliable metric to understand future river reach- to region-scale surface-water permanence and availability and inform land management and policy decisions.

Fact Sheet↗

USGS2012

Bioenergy potential of the United States constrained by satellite observations of existing productivity

United States (U.S.) energy policy includes an expectation that bioenergy will be a substantial future energy source. In particular, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) aims to increase annual U.S. biofuel (secondary bioenergy) production by more than 3-fold, from 40 to 136 billion liters ethanol, which implies an even larger increase in biomass demand (primary energy), from roughly 2.9 to 7.4 EJ yr –1 . However, our understanding of many of the factors used to establish such energy targets is far from complete, introducing significgant uncertainty into the feasibility of current estimates of bioenergy potential. Here, we utilized satellite-derived net primary productivity (NPP) data—measured for every 1 km 2 of the 7.2 million km 2 of vegetated land in the conterminous U.S.—to estimate primary bioenergy potential (PBP). Our results indicate that PBP of the conterminous U.S. ranges from roughly 5.9 to 22.2 EJ yr –1 , depending on land use. The low end of this range represents the potential when harvesting residues only, while the high end would require an annual biomass harvest over an area more than three times current U.S. agricultural extent. While EISA energy targets are theoretically achievable, we show that meeting these targets utilizing current technology would require either an 80% displacement of current crop harvest or the conversion of 60% of rangeland productivity. Accordingly, realistically constrained estimates of bioenergy potential are critical for effective incorporation of bioenergy into the national energy portfolio.

Environmental Science & Technology↗

USGS2017

Sustainability of utility-scale solar energy – critical ecological concepts

Renewable energy development is an arena where ecological, political, and socioeconomic values collide. Advances in renewable energy will incur steep environmental costs to landscapes in which facilities are constructed and operated. Scientists – including those from academia, industry, and government agencies – have only recently begun to quantify trade-offs in this arena, often using ground-mounted, utility-scale solar energy facilities (USSE, ≥1 megawatt) as a model. Here, we discuss five critical ecological concepts applicable to the development of more sustainable USSE with benefits over fossil-fuel-generated energy: (1) more sustainable USSE development requires careful evaluation of trade-offs between land, energy, and ecology; (2) species responses to habitat modification by USSE vary; (3) cumulative and large-scale ecological impacts are complex and challenging to mitigate; (4) USSE development affects different types of ecosystems and requires customized design and management strategies; and (5) long-term ecological consequences associated with USSE sites must be carefully considered. These critical concepts provide a framework for reducing adverse environmental impacts, informing policy to establish and address conservation priorities, and improving energy production sustainability.

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment↗

USGS2009

Research in thermal biology: Burning questions for coldwater stream fishes

With the increasing appreciation of global warming impacts on ecological systems, in addition to the myriad of land management effects on water quality, the number of literature citations dealing with the effects of water temperature on freshwater fish has escalated in the past decade. Given the many biological scales at which water temperature effects have been studied, and the growing need to integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines of thermal biology to fully protect beneficial uses, we held that a survey of the most promising recent developments and an expression of some of the remaining unanswered questions with significant management implications would best be approached collectively by a diverse research community. We have identified five specific topic areas of renewed research where new techniques and critical thought could benefit coldwater stream fishes (particularly salmonids): molecular, organism, population/species, community and ecosystem, and policy issues in water quality. Our hope is that information gained through examination of recent research fronts linking knowledge at various scales will prove useful in managing water quality at a basin level to protect fish populations and whole ecosystems. Standards of the past were based largely on incipient lethal and optimum growth rate temperatures for fish species, while future standards should consider all integrated thermal impacts to the organism and ecosystem. ?? Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Reviews in Fisheries Science↗

USGS2021

Homeowners’ willingness to adopt environmentally beneficial landscape practices in an urbanizing watershed

Streams in urbanizing watersheds often experience low flows in summer due to increased water use for residential landscaping and decreased base flow as impervious land cover limits aquifer recharge. Environmentally beneficial landscape practices that save water and infiltrate runoff have the potential to provide multiple ecological benefits including reducing stress on urban streams, but can face opposition by local homeowners. Thus, this study explored attitudes toward landscape water conservation including the barriers and motivations that exist to adoption of water conserving landscape practices by residents in the Ipswich River watershed north of Boston, Massachusetts that experiences seasonal water shortages. The study used a mail-out and on-line survey with images of different water conserving landscape practices (including rain gardens and native plantings) and questions about homeowners’ watering practices, likelihood of adopting these landscape practices, and attitudes towards environmental issues in the region, including existing water policies to restrict use. The results showed that residents (n=265) were aware of existing water shortages and supportive of water conservation policies. Their willingness to adopt water conserving landscape practices was influenced by aesthetic preference with more support for practices that appeared neat rather than those that appeared unkempt. Barriers to residential adoption of these landscape practices included concern about disease-carrying pests and the perceived cost of landscape change. Knowledge about the environment, as operationalized by membership in a local watershed association, as well as educational attainment and income were significant variables in predicting aesthetic preferences and willingness to adopt landscape practices. Promoting widespread adoption of water conserving landscape practices will require local community support and educational initiatives about the multiple-benefits of these practices, including potential long-term cost savings for homeowners. Residential landscape design and management, however, is only part of overarching policy changes that must be implemented to address water conservation in urbanizing watersheds.

Massachusetts↗

USGS2010

Economic benefit of fertility control in wild horse populations

I projected costs for several contraceptive treatments that could be used by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to manage 4 wild horse (Equus caballus) populations. Potential management alternatives included existing roundup and selective removal methods combined with contraceptives of different duration and effectiveness. I projected costs for a 20-year economic life using the WinEquus?? wild horse population model and state-by-state cost estimates reflecting BLM's operational expenses. Findings revealed that 1) currently available 2-year contraceptives in most situations are capable of reducing variable operating costs by 15%, 2) experimental 3-year contraceptives may be capable of reducing costs by 18%, and 3) combining contraceptives with modest changes to herd sex ratio (e.g., 55-60% M) could trim costs by 30%. Predicted savings can increase when contraception is applied in conjunction with a removal policy that targets horses aged 0-4 years instead of 0-5 years. However, reductions in herd size result in greater variation in annual operating expenses. Because the horse program's variable operating costs make up about half of the total program costs (which include other fixed costs), contraceptive application and management can only reduce total costs by 14%, saving about $6.1 million per year. None of the contraceptive options I examined eliminated the need for long-term holding facilities over the 20-year period simulated, but the number of horses held may be reduced by about 17% with contraceptive treatment. Cost estimates were most sensitive to the oldest age adoptable and per-day holding costs. The BLM will experience significant cost savings as carefully designed contraceptive programs become widespread in the wild horse herds it manages.

Journal of Wildlife Management↗

USGS2015

Modelling regional land change scenarios to assess land abandonment and reforestation dynamics in the Pyrenees (France)

Over the last decades and centuries, European mountain landscapes have experienced substantial transformations. Natural and anthropogenic LULC changes (land use and land cover changes), especially agro-pastoral activities, have directly influenced the spatial organization and composition of European mountain landscapes. For the past sixty years, natural reforestation has been occurring due to a decline in both agricultural production activities and rural population. Stakeholders, to better anticipate future changes, need spatially and temporally explicit models to identify areas at risk of land change and possible abandonment. This paper presents an integrated approach combining forecasting scenarios and a LULC changes simulation model to assess where LULC changes may occur in the Pyrenees Mountains, based on historical LULC trends and a range of future socio-economic drivers. The proposed methodology considers local specificities of the Pyrenean valleys, sub-regional climate and topographical properties, and regional economic policies. Results indicate that some regions are projected to face strong abandonment, regardless of the scenario conditions. Overall, high rates of change are associated with administrative regions where land productivity is highly dependent on socio-economic drivers and climatic and environmental conditions limit intensive (agricultural and/or pastoral) production and profitability. The combination of the results for the four scenarios allows assessments of where encroachment (e.g. colonization by shrublands) and reforestation are the most probable. This assessment intends to provide insight into the potential future development of the Pyrenees to help identify areas that are the most sensitive to change and to guide decision makers to help their management decisions.

Journal of Mountain Science↗

USGS1979

Ground-water quality in Bannock, Bear Lake, Caribou, and part of Power counties, southeastern Idaho

This report provides information about the current quality of ground waters in southeastern Idaho and discusses the natural and manmade environmental controls on that quality. This information will be useful in planning and monitoring the development and use of the ground-water resources of southeastern Idaho. The southeastern corner of Idaho, as described in this report, encompasses an area of about 4,000 mil in Bannock, Bear Lake, Caribou, and part of Power Counties. The popu- lation of the area in 1975, based on best estimates by the Idaho Division of Budget, Policy Planning, and Coordination (1976) was 75,200. About 80 percent of the population is in and near the city of Pocatello, which is the second largest population center in the State. Pocatello's economy depends largely on manufacturing and industrial processing, which includes chemicalfertilizer plants. The econ- omy in the rural areas depends largely on agriculture--both dry and irrigated farming are practiced. Mining is important and expected to dominate the economy in the eastcentral part of the area in the future. Natural resources include phosphate ore, which makes up about 35 percent of the U.S. reserves (U.S. Department of Interior and U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1977); ground water, which mostly underlies the several intermontane valleys that dissect the area; and hot springs, which indicate that geothermal energy sources may underlie part of the area. Also, current (1978) speculation is that petroleum reserves may be present in the vicinity of Bear Lake. Development of more sprink- ler-irrigated lands, increases in population, and growth of phosphate mining are expected to place stress on the ground-water resources, both in quality and quantity. The purpose of this report is to present the results of a study whose primary objectives were (1) to provide current waterquality data representative of the water in several different aquifers (water- bearing formations) in the study area, and (2) to relate these data to natural and manmade environmental controls. The wells sampled during this study establish a quasi-network, which could be resampled in the future to document and analyze changes (if any) in ground-water quality. Based on this information, planners and water managers could better understand the causeand-effect relations controlling water quality and could better manage land and water-resource development. The report is designed for ease of reading and presentation. It uses maps, tables, and abbreviated text to describe geology, hydrology, and ground-water quality and how they are interrelated. Some practical ways for improving water quality are discussed for the benefit of individual water users. The field data collected in making the study are contained in the Data Section of this report. The authors gratefully acknowledge the many individual well owners, municipal officials, and private industries that provided well information and allowed access to their properties and collection of water samples. Without their help, this work could not have been done. Water samples were collected at 103 well sites. Waterlevel measurements were made at 98 of these sites during July, August, and September of 1976. This study was made by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Idaho Department of Water Resources. A similar study is being made (1978) in north Idaho. Other studies are planned, specifically to obtain ground-water-quality data in areas where land and water-resource development is expected or accelerating.

Idaho↗

USGS1996

Resource assessment of the Bureau of Land Management's Winnemucca District and Surprise Resource Area, Northwest Nevada and Northeast California; geology and its relation to resource genesis

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is a party to joint interagency Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) to coordinate resource assessments and evaluations of BLM administered lands. Resource assessments of BLM Resource Areas, that are conducted by the USGS under these MOUs, assist the BLM in meeting inventory and evaluation, resource-management planning, and other management requirements of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA). This report is one of several to be generated as part of a resource assessment of BLMadministered lands in northwest Nevada and northeast California. The project area is composed of three contiguous BLM Resource Areas (RAs), totalling 13.5 million acres, in northwest Nevada and northeast California (figs. 1, 2). The SonomaGerlach and Paradise-Denio Resource Areas in northwest Nevada together comprise the BLM's Winnemucca District. The Surprise RA is located in extreme northwest Nevada and northeast California and is part of the BLM's Susanville District, which is administered by the BLM's California state office. Henceforth in this report, the project area will be referred to as the Winnemucca-Surprise Resource Assessment Area (WSRAA). Sources of geologic data used in this compilation include the state geologic maps of Nevada (Stewart and Carlson, 1978) and California (Jennings, 1977). Other regional, largerscale geologic maps of the area that were used include the 1:250,000 scale Nevada county geologic maps (Willden, 1964; Bonham, 1969; Willden and Speed, 1974; Johnson, 1977), l:125,000-scale geologic quadrangle maps (Ferguson and others, 1951, 1952; Muller and others, 1951), 1:62,500-scale geologic quadrangle maps (Gilluly, 1967; Silberling and Wallace, 1967; Wallace and others, 1969a, b) and several 1:48,000- and 1:24,000-scale geologic quadrangle maps (e.g., Erickson and Marsh, 1974 b, c; Vikre, 1985b; Theodore, 1991 a, b; 1994; Doebrich, 1994, 1995; Jones, in press a, b). The geology of the WSRAA records a complex history of Paleozoic and Mesozoic accretionary and plutonic events followed by Tertiary extensional tectonism and magmatism. This report chronologically outlines sedimentologic, magmatic, and tectonic events that shaped the geology of the WSRAA and relates these events to the genesis and distribution of the region's mineral and non-mineral resources. This is the initial report of several scheduled to be prepared on the WSRAA. Others reports include geochemistry, geophysics, hydrothermal alteration classification using Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery, assessment of metallic mineral resources, assessment of non-metallic mineral resources, and assessment of oil and gas resources.

Open-File Report↗

USGS2015

Water use in Georgia by county for 2010 and water-use trends, 1985–2010

Water use and water withdrawals and returns in 2010 are estimated for each major river basin, principal aquifer, water-planning region, and county in Georgia using data obtained from various Federal and State agencies and local sources. Offstream water use in 2010 is estimated for the categories of public supply, domestic, commercial, industrial, mining, irrigation, livestock, aquaculture, and thermoelectric power. Water-use trends for 1985 to 2010 are also shown. The period between 2007 and 2010 was a challenging time economically and climatologically in Georgia. During that period, the United States was in the midst of a major recession, resulting in decreases in the manufacturing and construction industries and large increases in unemployment. During 2007, 2008, and the latter half of 2010, precipitation in Georgia was substantially below the 30-year norm. According to the 2010 Census of Population and Housing, nearly 9.7 million people lived in Georgia. The water for about 85 percent of that population was provided by public water suppliers. Estimated total water withdrawals from ground-water and surface-water sources were about 4,670 million gallons per day (Mgal/d) in 2010, about a 15-percent reduction from 2005 (5,471 Mgal/d). In 2010, thermoelectric-power facilities (2,046 Mgal/d) and public-supply uses (1,121 Mgal/d) accounted for 68 percent of all water withdrawn in Georgia. Surface-water withdrawals were greatest for thermoelectric-power generation (2,043 Mgal/d), whereas irrigation used the largest amount of groundwater (599 Mgal/d). Surface water provided 78 percent of the 1,121 Mgal/day withdrawn for public supply in 2010. Typically, counties in northern Georgia withdraw a larger percentage of water from surface water than groundwater sources; whereas, counties in the southern part of the State withdraw more water from groundwater sources. Historically, water withdrawals in Georgia were highest in 1980 (6,725 Mgal/d). By 1990, water use had decreased by 20 percent to 5,353 Mgal/d, but increased to 6,487 Mgal/d in 2000. By 2005, water use had decreased to an estimated 5,471 Mgal/d, and declined further to 4,670 Mgal/d in 2010—a 30-percent decrease since 1980. This decline was evident across all water-use categories, but was greatest for surface-water withdrawals by thermoelectric-power facilities. The estimated total water use per capita in 1985 (total withdrawals for all categories divided by total population) was about 850 gallons per day (gal/d), steadily decreasing to about 798 gal/d in 2000, and decreasing further to 460 gal/d in 2010. Although water use declined among all use categories during that 10-year period, most of the decline in per capita water use was caused by the large decrease in water used for thermoelectric-power generation. Throughout 1985–2010 water withdrawn for thermoelectric-power generation has constituted the largest volume of offstream water use in Georgia. Total withdrawals for thermoelectric-power generation declined about 37 percent between 2000 and 2010, mostly due to the decommissioning of power plants in the State. Also during this period, several power plants were shut down and re-tooled to use natural gas-powered generators; thus, water withdrawals for cooling were substantially reduced. The decline in water withdrawals and use between 2005 and 2010 can probably be attributed to several factors working together during this period: (1) water conservation laws and policies along with advances in water-conservation technology; (2) the onset of a major recession in 2007; and (3) below average rainfall in 2007, 2008, and the latter half of 2010. Because of these factors, water withdrawn by public suppliers decreased by 4.8 percent (despite a nearly 11-percent increase in population served) and per capita use decreased by 19 percent between 2005 and 2010. About 2,225 Mgal/d of water was returned to Georgia streams and lakes in 2010 under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program administered by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. This amount is about 48 percent of the total water withdrawn from all sources in 2010. Water returns declined 39 percent between 1995 and 2010, mirroring the decline in water withdrawals during that period. In addition, land applications of treated wastewater increased steadily between 1995 and 2010.

Georgia↗

USGS1982

South Atlantic summary report 2: A revision of Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas activities in the South Atlantic (U.S.) and their onshore impacts, a summary report, July 1980

The search for oil and gas on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) in the South Atlantic Region began in 1960, when geophysical surveys of the area were initiated. In 1977, a Continental Offshore Stratigraphic Test (COST) well was drilled in the Southeast Georgia Embayment. In March 1978, the first lease sale, Sale 43, was held, resulting in the leasing of 43 tracts. Approximately a year later, in May 1979, the first exploratory drilling began, and by February 1980, six exploratory wells had been drilled by four companies. Hydrocarbons were not found in any of these wells. Lease Sale 56, the second lease sale in the South Atlantic Region, was held in August 1981. The sale resulted in the leasing of 47 tracts. Most of the leased tracts are in deep water along the Continental Slope off North Carolina. To date, no drilling has occurred on these tracts, but it is likely that two wells will be drilled or will be in the process of being drilled by the end of 1982. Reoffering Sale RS-2 is scheduled for July 1982, and it will include tracts offered in Lease Sale 56 that were not awarded leases. Lease Sale 78 is scheduled to be held in July 1983. The most recent (March 1982) estimates of risked resources for leased lands in the South Atlantic OCS are 27 million barrels of oil and 120 billion cubic feet of gas. To date, onshore impacts resulting from OCS exploration have been minimal, and they were associated with Lease Sale 43 exploratory activities. Tenneco, using existing facilities, established a support base in Savannah, Georgia; Getty, Transco, and Exxon used a support base established for them by the city of Brunswick, Georgia. The port at Morehead City, North Carolina, is expected to provide the onshore facilities for exploration in the near future on Lease Sale 56 tracts. Arrangements for the use of these facilities are currently being negotiated. In June 1981, the South Atlantic Regional Technical Working Group prepared a Regional Transportation Management Plan for the South Atlantic OCS. The plan is principally an integration of regulatory frameworks, policies, and plans that are applicable to pipeline siting from each of the South Atlantic coastal States and Federal agencies with jurisdiction in the area.

Outer Continental Shelf, South Atlantic↗

USGS2007

Ohio Aquatic Gap Analysis-An Assessment of the Biodiversity and Conservation Status of Native Aquatic Animal Species

The goal of the GAP Analysis Program is to keep common species common by identifying those species and habitats that are not yet adequately represented in the existing matrix of conservation lands. The Gap Analysis Program (GAP) is sponsored by the Biological Resources Discipline of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The Ohio Aquatic GAP (OH-GAP) is a pilot project that is applying the GAP concept to aquatic-specifically, riverine-data. The mission of GAP is to provide regional assessments of the conservation status of native animal species and to facilitate the application of this information to land-management activities. OH-GAP accomplished this through * mapping aquatic habitat types, * mapping the predicted distributions of fish, crayfish, and bivalves, * documenting the presence of aquatic species in areas managed for conservation, * providing GAP results to the public, planners, managers, policy makers, and researchers, and * building cooperation with multiple organizations to apply GAP results to state and regional management activities. Gap analysis is a coarse-scale assessment of aquatic biodiversity and conservation; the goal is to identify gaps in the conservation of native aquatic species. It is not a substitute for biological field studies and monitoring programs. Gap analysis was conducted for the continuously flowing streams in Ohio. Lakes, reservoirs, wetlands, and the Lake Erie islands were not included in this analysis. The streams in Ohio are in the Lake Erie and Ohio River watersheds and pass through six of the level III ecoregions defined by Omernik: the Eastern Corn Belt Plains, Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains, Huron/Erie Lake Plain, Erie Drift Plains, Interior Plateau, and the Western Allegheny Plateau. To characterize the aquatic habitats available to Ohio fish, crayfish, and bivalves, a classification system needed to be developed and mapped. The process of classification includes delineation of areas of relative homogeneity and labeling these areas using categories defined by the classification system. The variables were linked to the 1:100,000-scale streams of the National Hydrography Dataset of the USGS. Through discussions with Ohio aquatic experts, OH-GAP identified eight separate enduring physical features which, when combined, form the physical habitat type: * Shreve link (a measure of stream size) * Downstream Shreve link (a measure of stream connectivity and size) * Sinuosity * Gradient * Bedrock * Stream temperature * Character of glacial drift * Glacial-drift thickness Potential distribution models were developed for 130 fish, 70 bivalve, and 17 native crayfish species. These models are based on 5,686 fish, 4,469 crayfish, and 2,899 freshwater bivalve (mussels and clams) sampling locations, the variables describing the physical habitat types, and variables indicating the major drainage basins and Omernik's Level III ecoregion. All potential species distributions are displayed and analyzed at the 14-digit hydrologic unit (14-HUs), or subwatershed, level. Mainland Ohio contains 1,749 14-HUs. All statistics and conclusions, as well as spatial data, are discussed and presented in terms of these units. The Ohio Aquatic Gap Analysis Project compiled a map of public and private conservation lands and OH-GAP classified the lands into four status categories (status 1 through status 4) by the degree of protection offered based on management practices. A status of 1 denotes the highest, most permanent level of maintenance, and status 4 represents the lowest level of biodiversity management, or unknown status. The results of this mapping show that only about 3.7 percent of the state's land (4.3 percent if lakes and reservoirs are also included) is protected for conservation, either publicly or privately. Of this total, state agencies control about 52 percent, and Federal agencies control about 29 percent. Conservation areas that presently protect

Open-File Report↗

USGS2022

Exposure of cultural resources to 21st-century climate change: Towards a risk management plan

Anthropogenic climate change during the 21st century presents a significant challenge to the protection of cultural resources (CRs) on federal lands that encompass ∼ 28% of the U.S. In particular, CRs on this land base may be adversely affected by a wide range of climate-change hazards, including damage by sea-level rise, enhanced deterioration by increasing temperature and precipitation, and destruction by more-frequent and severe wildfire. Most current measures to manage the impacts of hazards on CRs use vulnerability assessments, but because these require that all CRs be treated as having an equal chance of being affected by climate-change hazards (i.e., equal exposure) across large landscapes, the cost and resources required for such analyses are overwhelming to land management agencies. Projections of changes in many hazards, however, show that the probability of hazard occurrence will be unevenly distributed on the landscape. Incorporating this information into a risk assessment thus allows CR managers to prioritize their efforts on assessing impacts to CRs in those areas where the probability of the hazard is greatest, thus increasing efficiency. We provide several heuristic examples of implementing the first part of a CR risk assessment by using 21st-century projections of several hazards most likely to adversely affect CRs on nine National Forests (NFs) managed by the U.S. Forest Service in northern Idaho and Montana. Overlaying the projected distribution of hazards on these NFs with the distribution of CRs identifies CR exposure that, with information on their vulnerability, is required to determine risk. Additional policy and field studies will be needed to determine how to prioritize those CRs that are most at risk according to their significance as well as identify how impacts can be reduced and managed through adaptation planning and implementation. Adaptation will follow the iterative risk management process particularly by improving projection resolution. Finer scale, process-based modeling informed by the highest priority CRs would also provide a means to assess various adaptation options that might change the estimated risk and increase the odds of CRs being as little affected as possible.

Idaho, Montana↗

USGS2024

The LTAR Grazing Land Common Experiment at the Jornada Experimental Range: Old genetics, new precision technologies, and adaptive value chains

Rangelands and the supply chains connected to them are central to the agrifood systems of the Southwestern United States. Local ranchers are simultaneously arid lands managers, herd managers, and marketing managers. To stay in business, they must constantly adapt to unpredictable forage resources and markets while conserving soils and vegetation resources for the long term. As climate warming and drying exacerbate the complexity and difficulty of day-to-day production, producers and policy-makers are seeking alternatives to “business as usual”. To meet this need, the LTAR-Jornada team has developed a package of strategies to help producers adapt to the local and inter-regional challenges. The package includes heritage cattle, precision ranching systems, and adaptive value chains. Five ranches across the Southwest have adopted different combinations of the strategies and are partnering to measure their benefits and drawbacks in real-world conditions. Opportunities for controlled experimentation differ among the ranches, so we use LTAR’s indicator system to assess and compare results. Even as we invest in co-producing knowledge about these three strategies, we recognize that progressive aridification and urbanization of Southwestern rangelands create challenges for which a single “silver bullet” agricultural innovation is unlikely to provide durable solutions. We are learning from our customers and stakeholders about ways to adjust the development of new options.

New Mexico↗