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Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.

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At least 685 records · Page 38Linked to original sources
USGS2007

Oahu: perspective from space

Satellite remote sensing provides us with a unique perspective from space. This perspective is synoptic in nature and provides regional views of most of the land areas of the earth. The orbital characteristics of the Landsat system are such that repetitive imagery of the same area may be obtained. Because of the permanent nature of the imagery, it may be retrieved for comparative analysis at any time. Comparisons of this image of Oahu with maps of the island (for example, the Oahu, Hawaii, 1:250,000-scale topographic map) will enable the reader to readily identify the place names discussed in this article and permit a more detailed interpretation of the image.

Hawaii↗
USGS2021

Koch’s postulates: Confirming Nannizziopsis guarroi as the cause of yellow fungal disease in Pogona vitticeps

Nannizziopsis guarroi is an ascomycete fungus associated with a necrotizing dermatitis in captive green iguanas ( Iguana iguana ) and bearded dragons ( Pogona vitticeps ) across both Europe and North America. Clinical signs of the disease include swelling and lesion formation. Lesions develop from white raised bumps on the skin and progress into crusty, yellow, discolored scales, eventually becoming necrotic. The clinical signs are the basis of a colloquial name yellow fungal disease (YFD). However, until now, N. guarroi has not been confirmed as the primary agent of the disease in bearded dragons. In this experiment, we fulfill Koch’s postulates criteria of disease, demonstrating N. guarroi as the primary agent of YFD in bearded dragons.

Mycologia↗
USGS2014

Auroral omens of the American Civil War

Aurorae are a splendid night-time sight: coruscations of green, purple, and red fluorescent light in the form of gently wafting ribbons, billowing curtains, and flashing rays. Mostly seen at high latitudes, in the north aurorae are often called the northern lights or aurora borealis, and, in the south, the southern lights or aurora australis. The mystery of their cause has historically been the subject of wonder. The folklore and mythology of some far-northern civilizations attributed auroral light to celestial deities. And, in ironic contrast with their heavenly beauty, unusual auroral displays, such as those seen on rare occasions at lower southern latitudes, have sometimes been interpreted as portending unfavorable future events. Today we understand aurorae to be a visual manifestation of the dynamic conditions in the space environment surrounding the earth. Important direct evidence in support of this theory came on September 1, 1859. On that day, an English astronomer named Richard Carrington was situated at his telescope, which was pointed at the sun. While observing and sketching a large group of sunspots, he saw a solar flare—intense patches of white light that were superimposed upon the darker sunspot group and which were illuminated for about a minute. One day later, a magnetic storm was recorded at specially designed observatories in Europe, across Russia, and in India. By many measures, the amplitude of magnetic disturbance was the greatest ever recorded. In the United States, the effects of the Carrington storm could be seen as irregular backand-forth deflections of a few degrees in the magnetized needle of a compass. Rapid magnetic variation also induced electric fields in the earth’s conducting lithosphere, and interfered with the operation of telegraph systems. The Carrington magnetic storm, and an earlier storm that had occurred on August 28, 1859, caused spectacular displays of aurora borealis in the night-time sky over the entire United States and the western hemisphere, possibly all the way down to the equator. This was extremely unusual, so much so that an auroral event o

Weatherwise↗
USGS2010

Water vapour correction of the daily 1 km AVHRR global land dataset: Part I validation and use of the Water Vapour input field

An atmospheric correction algorithm developed for the 1 km Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) global land dataset was modified to include a near real-time total column water vapour data input field to account for the natural variability of atmospheric water vapour. The real-time data input field used for this study is the Television and Infrared Observational Satellite (TIROS) Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) Pathfinder A global total column water vapour dataset. It was validated prior to its use in the AVHRR atmospheric correction process using two North American AVHRR scenes, namely 13 June and 28 November 1996. The validation results are consistent with those reported by others and entail a comparison between TOVS, radiosonde, experimental sounding, microwave radiometer, and data from a hand-held sunphotometer. The use of this data layer as input to the AVHRR atmospheric correction process is discussed.

International Journal of Remote Sensing↗
USGS2010

Analysis of individual- and time-specific covariate effects on survival of Serinus serinus in north-eastern Spain

We developed models for the analysis of recapture data for 2678 serins (Serinus serinus) ringed in north-eastern Spain since 1985. We investigated several time- and individual-specific factors as potential predictors of overall mortality and dispersal patterns, and of gender and age differences in these patterns. Time-specific covariates included minimum daily temperature, days below freezing, and abundance of a strong competitor, siskins (Carduelis spinus) during winter, and maximum temperature and rainfall during summer. Individual covariates included body mass (i.e. body condition), and wing length (i.e. flying ability), and interactions between body mass and environmental factors. We found little support of a predictive relationship between environmental factors and survival, but good evidence of relationships between body mass and survival, especially for juveniles. Juvenile survival appears to vary in a curvilinear manner with increasing mass, suggesting that there may exist an optimal mass beyond which increases are detrimental. The mass-survival relationship does seem to be influenced by at least one environmental factor, namely the abundance of wintering siskins. When siskins are abundant, increases in body mass appear to relate strongly to increasing survival. When siskin numbers are average or low the relationship is largely reversed, suggesting that the presence of strong competition mitigates the otherwise largely negative aspects of greater body mass. Wing length in juveniles also appears to be related positively to survival, perhaps largely due to the influence of a few unusually large juveniles with adult-like survival. Further work is needed to test these relationships, ideally under experimentation.

Journal of Applied Statistics↗
USGS2013

Effects of depletion sampling by standard three-pass pulsed DC electrofishing on blood chemistry parameters of fishes from Appalachian streams

Adverse effects on fishes captured by electrofishing techniques have long been recognized, although the extent of associated physical injury and behavioral alterations are highly variable and dependent on a number of factors. We examined the effects of three-pass pulsed DC (PDC) electrofishing on two salmonid species (Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis) and five other genera (Green Sunfish Lepomis cyanellus, Potomac Sculpin Cottus girardi, Fathead Minnow Pimephales promelas, Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides, and Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus) common to Appalachian streams. We examined the corresponding effects of PDC electroshock on the following physiological indicators of stress and trauma: blood glucose and serum lactate, as well as on other blood chemistry, namely, enzymes, electrolytes, minerals, and proteins. All species demonstrated physiological responses to PDC electroshock, indicated by the biochemical differences in blood parameters in unshocked and shocked groups of fish with or without gross evidence of hemorrhagic trauma. Serum lactate was the most consistent indicator of these effects. Significant differences in whole blood glucose levels were also noted in treatment groups in all species except Green Sunfish, although the patterns observed were not as consistent as for serum lactate. Elevations in the serum enzymes, aspartate aminotransferase and creatine kinase, in the electroshocked fish occurred only in the two salmonid species. In many instances, although blood parameters were elevated in electroshocked fish compared with the unshocked controls for a given species, there were no differences in those levels in electroshocked fish based on the presence of gross hemorrhagic trauma to axial musculature. While some of the blood parameters examined correlated with both the occurrence of electroshock and the resultant tissue injury, there was no apparent link between the altered blood chemistry and increased mortality 30 d after electrofishing.

Appalachian Mountains↗
USGS2016

Who Knew? Inconnu

In 1999, I moved to Alaska to serve as unit leader of the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and professor of fisheries in the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. What was unusual about this move was that before this I was an easterner and southerner, having done my graduate work in fisheries at Texas A&M University and been stationed in the Coop Unit Program in Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland. I had never worked with salmonids of any sort. To me fish with adipose fins also had whiskers! I suddenly found myself working in the land of salmon experts, and I didn't even reliably know the names—scientific, common, or colloquial—of the five (or is it six?) common Pacific salmon species in Alaska. I had to quickly find a research niche that probably didn't involve salmon.

Fisheries↗
USGS2016

Preparing future fisheries professionals to make good decisions

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. Specifically, SDM encourages users (e.g., students, managers) to think critically and communicate the problem and then identify specific, measurable objectives as they relate to the problem. Next, users must think critically and creatively about management alternatives that can be used to meet the objectives—there must be more than one alternative or there is no decision to be made. Lastly, the management alternatives are evaluated with regard to how likely they are to succeed in terms of multiple, possibly completing, objectives, such as how stakeholder groups value outcomes of management actions versus monetary cost. We believe that exposure to SDM and its elements is an important part of preparing future fisheries professional to meet the challenges they may face. These challenges include reduced budgets, the growth of potentially competing natural resource interest groups, and stakeholder desire to be involved in management decisions affecting public trust resources, just to name a few.

Fisheries↗
USGS2007

United States‐Mexican border watershed assessment: Modeling nonpoint source pollution in Ambos Nogales

Ecological considerations need to be interwoven with economic policy and planning along the United States‐Mexican border. Non‐point source pollution can have significant implications for the availability of potable water and the continued health of borderland ecosystems in arid lands. However, environmental assessments in this region present a host of unique issues and problems. A common obstacle to the solution of these problems is the integration of data with different resolutions, naming conventions, and quality to create a consistent database across the binational study area. This report presents a simple modeling approach to predict nonpoint source pollution that can be used for border watersheds. The modeling approach links a hillslopescale erosion‐prediction model and a spatially derived sediment‐delivery model within a geographic information system to estimate erosion, sediment yield, and sediment deposition across the Ambos Nogales watershed in Sonora, Mexico, and Arizona. This paper discusses the procedures used for creating a watershed database to apply the models and presents an example of the modeling approach applied to a conservation‐planning problem.

Arizona, Sonoma↗
USGS2017

In memoriam - William Toshio (Tosh) Yasutake, 1922-2016

William Toshio (Tosh) Yasutake, 1922-2016 passed away peacefully at home on December 12, 2016, at the age of 94. He is survived by Fumi, his wife of 66 years, as well as four children and six grandchildren. With his death, the fish health community has lost an outstanding scientist as well as a kind, unassuming, and wonderful human being. Tosh was born on June 10, 1922, in Seattle, Washington, to Jack and Hide Yasutake. He was in his first year of studies at the University of Washington when Pearl Harbor was attacked by Imperial Japan on December 7, 1941. Following the attack, Tosh and his family (father, mother, sister, and two brothers) were among the 110,000–120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who were forced from their homes on the Pacific coast and incarcerated in internment camps in the interior. In June 1942, Tosh enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving as an unarmed combat medic in the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of American warfare. Wounded in October 1944 during the Vosges Mountains campaign near Bruyères, France, Tosh was evacuated and missed the ensuing battle to rescue the “Lost Battalion,” at which his replacement was killed. Tosh returned to action in Italy in February 1945 and served until the end of the war in Europe, earning both a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for bravery. In October 2010, the Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and in 2012 the surviving members were made chevaliers of the French Légion d’Honneur for actions contributing to the liberation of France in World War II. After the war, Tosh returned to the University of Washington on the GI Bill and received a B.S. degree in zoology in 1951. In 1953 he began his research career at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Western Fish Nutrition Laboratory at Cook, Washington, where he conducted pioneering research on nutritional fish diseases with John Halver. Tosh was one of the first to recognize hepatomas in hatchery-reared Rainbow Trout and helped to trace the disease to an aflatoxin produced by the mold Aspergillus flavis , which grew during the storage of ingredients for fish diets. In 1960, he transferred to the Western Fisheries Research Center (WFRC) in Seattle (then called the Western Fish Disease Laboratory) to start a fish pathology diagnostic laboratory. There he described the histopathology of diseases of economically important fishes, identified etiologic agents, and worked with hatchery biologists to improve the health, quality, and survival of salmonids released from federal and state hatcheries. Tosh was instrumental in recognizing that the viruses of Oregon sockeye disease and Chinook Salmon virus disease were one entity and in giving the disease its present name: infectious hematopoietic necrosis. In recognition of his pioneering research, Tosh was awarded a doctorate in fish pathology by the University of Tokyo in 1980, the first American to have been so honored. In 1983, he published his classic textbook The Microscopic Anatomy of Salmonids: An Atlas , which quickly became a standard reference work in fish pathology and is still in wide use today. For his outstanding career achievements, in 1987 Tosh received the S. F. Snieszko Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor bestowed by the American Fisheries Society’s Fish Health Section (AFS–FHS). Tosh retired in 1988 but continued his research at the WFRC as a senior scientist emeritus, providing technical assistance to federal and state agencies and to the aquaculture industry worldwide. His culminating project was to digitize his lifetime collection of photomicrographs and prepare an atlas, “Histopathology of Selected Parasitic Salmonid Diseases: A Color Atlas,” that is now posted on the Web sites of the WFRC and the AFS–FHS. Although his presence will be sorely missed, his research contributions have become part of the foundation of today’s knowledge of fisheries biology and have assured him a place in history.

Journal of Aquatic Animal Health↗
USGS1996

Taxonomic reassessment of the ichnogenus Beaconichnus and additional examples from the Carboniferous of Kansas, U.S.A.

The ichnogenus Beaconichnus (Gevers 1973), an arthropod trace fossil, includes very different forms that comprise five ichnospecies, namely B. darwi‐nunt (Gevers 1971), B. gouldi (Gevers 1971), B. ahtarcticum (Gevers 1971), B. giganteum Gevers and Twomey 1982, and B. wrrighti Gevers and Twomey 1982. The original diagnosis of Beaconichnus is rather vague and potentially may accommodate virtually every arthropod trackway described from the fossil record. In view of these problems, the validity of Beaconichnus is reassessed and each of its ichnospecies is reviewed. We conclude that B. darwinum is a junior synonym of Diplopodichnus biformis Brady 1947; B. antarcticum should be regarded as Palmich‐niunt antarcticum; and B. wrighti is a nomen nudum. Additionally, we agree with previous proposals in considering B. gouldi as the senior synonym of B. giganteum , and including it in Diplichnites Dawson 1873. Therefore, we suggest that the ichnogenus Beaconichnus is best disregarded. Additionally, we describe specimens collected from the Late Carboniferous Tonganoxie Sandstone Member (Stranger Formation) of eastern Kansas, ascribed herein to Diplopodichnus biformis and Diplichnites gouldi , which include examples of intergradations between both ichnotaxa, and provide synonymy lists for both ichnospecies.

Kansas↗
USGS2018

Validating the use of object-based image analysis to map commonly-recognized landform features in the United States

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Geospatial Program (NGP) seeks to i) create semantically-accessible terrain features from the pixel-based 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) data, and ii) enhance the usability of the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) by associating boundaries with GNIS features whose spatial representation is currently limited to 2D point locations. Geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) was determined to be a promising method to approach both goals. An existing GEOBIA workflow was modified and the resulting segmented objects and terrain categories tested for a strategically chosen physiographic province in the mid-western US, the Ozark Plateaus. The chi-squared test of independence confirmed that there is significant overall spatial association between terrain categories of the GEOBIA and GNIS feature classes. Contingency table analysis also suggests strong category-specific associations between select GNIS and GEOBIA classes. However, 3D visual analysis revealed that GEOBIA objects resembled segmented regions more than they did individual landform objects, with their boundaries often failing to correspond to match what people would likely perceive as landforms. Still, objects derived through GEOBIA can provide initial baseline landscape divisions that can improve the efficiency of more specialized feature extraction methods.

Cartography and Geographic Information Science↗
USGS1991

Great lakes embryo mortality, edema, and deformities syndrome (glemeds) in colonial fish-eating birds: Similarity to chick-edema disease

Several species of colonial fish-eating birds nesting in the Great Lakes basin Includ-ing herring gulls, common terns and double-crested cormorants, have exhibited chronic impairment of reproduction. In addition to eggshell thinning caused by high levels of DDT and metabolites, the reproductive impairment is characterized by high embryonic and chick mortality , edema, growth retardation, and deformities, hence the name Great Lakes embryo mortality , edema, and deformities syndrome (GLEMEDS). The hypothesis has been advanced that GLEMEDS in colonial fish-eating birds resembles chick-edema disease of poultry and has been caused by exposure to chick- edema active compounds that have a common mode of action through the cytochrome P-448 system. Detailed evidence has been collected from the following three groups of studies on herring gulls in the lower Great Lakes during the early 1970s; Forster’s terns in Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1983; and double-crested cormorants and Caspian terns in various locations in the upper Great Lakes from 1986 onwards. It has proved difficult to establish not only the onset of the disease in the various species at various locations but also the period in which chick-edema active compounds were released. Anecdotal evidence suggested that serious egg mortality . © 1988 by Hemisphere Publishing Corporation.

Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota,↗
USGS2007

Biogeographic affinity helps explain productivity-richness relationships at regional and local scales

The unresolved question of what causes the observed positive relationship between large-scale productivity and species richness has long interested ecologists and evolutionists. Here we examine a potential explanation that we call the biogeographic affinity hypothesis, which proposes that the productivity-richness relationship is a function of species' climatic tolerances that in turn are shaped by the earth's climatic history combined with evolutionary niche conservatism. Using botanical data from regions and sites across California, we find support for a key prediction of this hypothesis, namely, that the productivity-species richness relationship differs strongly and predictably among groups of higher taxa on the basis of their biogeographic affinities (i.e., between families or genera primarily associated with north-temperate, semiarid, or desert zones). We also show that a consideration of biogeographic affinity can yield new insights on how productivity-richness patterns at large geographic scales filter down to affect patterns of species richness and composition within local communities. ?? 2007 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1993

Early Proterozoic ties between two suspect terranes and the Mojave crustal block of the Southwestern U.S

Southern California and adjacent areas contain two suspect or exotic terranes comprised largely of ancient continental crust, namely the Tujunga (San Gabriel) and Joshua Tree terranes, that have been considered part of a larger displaced terrane, the Santa Lucia-Orocopia allochthon. Paleomagnetic data for the allochthon indicate northward transport in excess of 2000 km and, thus, an origin extraneous to North America. However, Early Proterozoic plutons of the Mojave crustal block and the Joshua Tree and Tujunga terranes have strikingly comparable features, including: (1) crystallization ages of 1.63 to 1.68 Ga; (2) biotite + sphene + magnetite hornblende garnet mineralogy; (3) high LIL and enriched HFS elemental composition; (4) WPG (within-plate granite) trace element chemistry; (5) similar and unique oxygen isotopic compositions; and (6) distinct Pb and Nd isotopic signatures. These features of the Mojave block, which clearly originated as part of native North America, nevertheless distinguish it from crust elsewhere in North America. On the basis of data presented here, we conclude that the Tujunga terrane is a disrupted portion of the Mojave crustal block and is neither far-traveled nor exotic to North America. Its apparent "exotic" nature stems from derivation out of the middle crust. We also conclude that the Joshua Tree terrane is correlative to the Mojave block. We have found no significant evidence for its displacement and consider Joshua Tree to be contiguous with the Mojave block and thus not a valid terrane. The Tujunga (San Gabriel) and Joshua Tree terranes should not be considered as part of, or having shared the same transport as, the Santa Lucia-Orocopia allocthon.

The Journal of Geology↗
USGS2015

Geospatial resources for the geologic community: The USGS National Map

Geospatial data are a key component of investigating, interpreting, and communicating the geological sciences. Locating geospatial data can be time-consuming, which detracts from time spent on a study because these data are not obviously placed in central locations or are served from many disparate databases. The National Map of the US Geological Survey is a publicly available resource for accessing the geospatial base map data needs of the geological community from a central location. The National Map data are available through a viewer and download platform providing access to eight primary data themes, plus the US Topo and scanned historical topographic maps. The eight themes are elevation, orthoimagery, hydrography, geographic names, boundaries, transportation, structures, and land cover, and they are being offered for download as predefined tiles in formats supported by leading geographic information system software. Data tiles are periodically refreshed to capture the most current content and are an efficient method for disseminating and receiving geospatial information. Elevation data, for example, are offered as a download from the National Map as 1° × 1° tiles for the 10- and 30- m products and as 15′ × 15′ tiles for the higher-resolution 3-m product. Vector data sets with smaller file sizes are offered at several tile sizes and formats. Partial tiles are not a download option—any prestaged data that intersect the requesting bounding box will be, in their entirety, part of the download order. While there are many options for accessing geospatial data via the Web, the National Map represents authoritative sources of data that are documented and can be referenced for citation and inclusion in scientific publications. Therefore, National Map products and services should be part of a geologist’s first stop for geospatial information and data.

Journal of Geology↗
USGS2014

Can air temperature be used to project influences of climate change on stream temperature?

Worldwide, lack of data on stream temperature has motivated the use of regression-based statistical models to predict stream temperatures based on more widely available data on air temperatures. Such models have been widely applied to project responses of stream temperatures under climate change, but the performance of these models has not been fully evaluated. To address this knowledge gap, we examined the performance of two widely used linear and nonlinear regression models that predict stream temperatures based on air temperatures. We evaluated model performance and temporal stability of model parameters in a suite of regulated and unregulated streams with 11–44 years of stream temperature data. Although such models may have validity when predicting stream temperatures within the span of time that corresponds to the data used to develop them, model predictions did not transfer well to other time periods. Validation of model predictions of most recent stream temperatures, based on air temperature–stream temperature relationships from previous time periods often showed poor performance when compared with observed stream temperatures. Overall, model predictions were less robust in regulated streams and they frequently failed in detecting the coldest and warmest temperatures within all sites. In many cases, the magnitude of errors in these predictions falls within a range that equals or exceeds the magnitude of future projections of climate-related changes in stream temperatures reported for the region we studied (between 0.5 and 3.0 °C by 2080). The limited ability of regression-based statistical models to accurately project stream temperatures over time likely stems from the fact that underlying processes at play, namely the heat budgets of air and water, are distinctive in each medium and vary among localities and through time.

Environmental Research Letters↗
USGS2022

Can we avert an Amazon tipping point? The economic and environmental costs

The Amazon biome is being pushed by unsustainable economic drivers towards an ecological tipping point where restoration to its previous state may no longer be possible. This degradation is the result of self-reinforcing interactions between deforestation, climate change and fire. We assess the economic, natural capital and ecosystem services impacts and trade-offs of scenarios representing movement towards an Amazon tipping point and strategies to avert one using the Integrated Economic-Environmental Modeling (IEEM) Platform linked with spatial land use-land cover change and ecosystem services modeling (IEEM + ESM). Our approach provides the first approximation of the economic, natural capital and ecosystem services impacts of a tipping point, and evidence to build the economic case for strategies to avert it. For the five Amazon focal countries, namely, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador, we find that a tipping point would create economic losses of US$256.6 billion in cumulative gross domestic product by 2050. Policies that would contribute to averting a tipping point, including strongly reducing deforestation, investing in intensifying agriculture in cleared lands, climate-adapted agriculture and improving fire management, would generate approximately US$339.3 billion in additional wealth and a return on investment of US$29.5 billion. Quantifying the costs, benefits and trade-offs of policies to avert a tipping point in a transparent and replicable manner can support the design of regional development strategies for the Amazon biome, build the business case for action and catalyze global cooperation and financing to enable policy implementation.

Amazon↗