Core Science Systems
Publications
Here you will find publications, reports and articles produced by Core Science System scientists. For a comprehensive listing of all USGS publications please click the button below.
Stratifying ocean sampling globally and with depth to account for environmental variability
With increasing depth, the ocean is less sampled for physical, chemical and biological variables. Using the Global Marine Environmental Datasets (GMED) and Ecological Marine Units (EMUs), we show that spatial variation in environmental variables decreases with depth. This is also the case over temporal scales because seasonal change...
Costello, Mark John; Basher, Zeenatul; Sayre, Roger; Breyer, Sean P.; Wright, Dawn J.Temporal evaluation of estrogenic endocrine disruption markers in smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) reveals seasonal variability in intersex
A reconnaissance project completed in 2009 identified intersex and elevated plasma vitellogenin in male smallmouth bass inhabiting the Missisquoi River, VT. In an attempt to identify the presence and seasonality of putative endocrine disrupting chemicals or other factors associated with these observations, a comprehensive reevaluation was...
Iwanowicz, Luke R.; Pinkney, A.E.; Guy, C.P.; Major, A.M.; Munney, K.; Blazer, Vicki S.; Alvarez, David; Walsh, Heather L.; Sperry, Adam J.; Sanders, Lakyn R.; Smith, D. R.A comparison of synthetic flowpaths derived from light detection and ranging topobathymetric data and National Hydrography Dataset High Resolution Flowlines
Bathymetric and topobathymetric light detection and ranging (lidar) digital elevation models created for the Delaware River were provided to the National Geospatial Program and used to evaluate synthetic flowpath extraction from bathymetric/topobathymetric lidar survey data as a data source for improving the density, distribution, and connectivity...
Miller-Corbett, CynthiaThe map as knowledge base
This paper examines the concept and implementation of a map as a knowledge base. A map as a knowledge base means that the visual map is not only the descriptive compilation of data and design principles, but also involves a compilation of semantic propositions and logical predicates that create a body of knowledge organized as a map. The digital...
Varanka, Dalia E.; Usery, E. LynnGeneralizing linear stream features to preserve sinuosity for analysis and display: A pilot study in multi-scale data science
Cartographic generalization can impact geometric properties of geospatial data and subsequent analyses. This study evaluates simplification methods with the goal of preserving geometric details, such as sinuosity. We evaluate two recently developed line simplification algorithms that introduce Steiner points: Raposo’s Spatial Means, and Kronenfeld...
Stanislawski, Larry V.; Kronenfeld, Barry J.; Buttenfield, Barbara P.; Brockmeyer, Tyler (Contractor)Modeling and simulation of emergent behavior in transportation infrastructure restoration
The objective of this chapter is to create a methodology to model the emergent behavior during a disruption in the transportation system and that calculates economic losses due to such a disruption, and to understand how an extreme event affects the road transportation network. The chapter discusses a system dynamics approach which is used to...
Ojha, Akhilesh; Corns, Steven; Shoberg, Thomas G.; Qin, Ruwen; Long, Suzanna K.Modeling wildfire-induced permafrost deformation in an Alaskan boreal forest using InSAR observations
The discontinuous permafrost zone is one of the world’s most sensitive areas to climate change. Alaskan boreal forest is underlain by discontinuous permafrost, and wildfires are one of the most influential agents negatively impacting the condition of permafrost in the arctic region. Using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) of...
Molan, Yusef Eshqi; Kim, Jin-Woo; Lu, Zhong; Wylie, Bruce K.; Zhu, ZhiliangAn open source high-performance solution to extract surface water drainage networks from diverse terrain conditions
This paper describes a workflow for automating the extraction of elevation-derived stream lines using open source tools with parallel computing support and testing the effectiveness of procedures in various terrain conditions within the conterminous United States. Drainage networks are extracted from the US Geological Survey 1/3 arc-second 3D...
Stanislawski, Larry V.; Survila, Kornelijus; Wendel, Jeffrey; Liu, Yan; Buttenfield, Barbara P.A linked GeoData map for enabling information access
OverviewThe Geospatial Semantic Web (GSW) is an emerging technology that uses the Internet for more effective knowledge engineering and information extraction. Among the aims of the GSW are to structure the semantic specifications of data to reduce ambiguity and to link those data more efficiently. The data are stored as triples, the basic data...
Powell, Logan J.; Varanka, Dalia E.Partial polygon pruning of hydrographic features in automated generalization
This paper demonstrates a working method to automatically detect and prune portions of waterbody polygons to support creation of a multi-scale hydrographic database. Water features are known to be sensitive to scale change; and thus multiple representations are required to maintain visual and geographic logic at smaller scales. Partial pruning of...
Stum, Alexander K. ; Buttenfield, Barbara P.; Stanislawski, Larry V.A reference landform ontology for automated delineation of depression landforms from DEMs
Abstract The landform reference ontology (LFRO) is being developed to formalize ontological distinctions underlying naïve geographic cognition and reasoning about landforms. The LFRO taxonomy is currently based only on form-based distinctions. In this significantly revised version, several new categories have been added to explicate ontological...
Sinha, Gaurav; Arundel, Samantha; Hahmann, Torsten; Usery, E. Lynn; Stewart, Kathleen C.; Mark, DavidThe National Map seamless digital elevation model specifications
This specification documents the requirements and standards used to produce the seamless elevation layers for The National Map of the United States. Seamless elevation data are available for the conterminous United States, Hawaii, Alaska, and the U.S. territories, in three different resolutions—1/3-arc-second, 1-arc-second, and 2-arc-second. These...
Archuleta, Christy-Ann M.; Constance, Eric W.; Arundel, Samantha T.; Lowe, Amanda J.; Mantey, Kimberly S.; Phillips, Lori A.