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Book Chapters

Browse more than 5,500 book chapters authored by our scientists over the past 100+ year history of the USGS and refine search by topic, location, year, and advanced search.

Filter Total Items: 6197

Quantifying the spatial details of carbon sequestration potential and performance Quantifying the spatial details of carbon sequestration potential and performance

Upscaling the spatial and temporal changes of carbon stocks and fluxes from sites to regions is challenging owing to the spatial and temporal variances and covariance of driving variables and the uncertainties in both the model and the input data. Although various modeling approaches have been developed to facilitate the upscaling process, few deal with error transfer from model input to...
Authors
S. Liu

Landsat mapping of local landscape change: The satellite-era context Landsat mapping of local landscape change: The satellite-era context

To set the stage for a vulnerability analysis, investigators must describe and understand the geographic context, including physical characteristics of the landscape and the political and socioeconomic milieu of the population (Jianchu et al. 2005). Vulnerability studies focus on a particular place, at a specific time through its three dimensions, exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive...
Authors
Rachel Headley, Robert Gilmore Pontius, John Harrington, Cynthia Sorrensen

GPS: Applications for measuring tectonic and fault-related deformation GPS: Applications for measuring tectonic and fault-related deformation

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based Global NavigationSatellite System (GNSS). Using signals transmitted by GPS satellites, the positions of ground‐based receivers can be calculated to high precision,making it possible to track the movement of points on the Earth's surface over time. Unlike older geodetic surveying methods which involved periodicallymeasuring angles...
Authors
Jessica R. Murray

Coastline degradation as an indicator of global change Coastline degradation as an indicator of global change

Finding a climate change signal on coasts is more problematic than often assumed. Coasts undergo natural dynamics at many scales, with erosion and recovery in response to climate variability such as El Niño, or extreme events such as storms and infrequent tsunamis. Additionally, humans have had enormous impacts on most coasts, overshadowing most changes that one can presently attribute...
Authors
Robert J. Nicholls, Colin D. Woodroffe, Virginia Burkett

Mapping irrigated lands across the United States using MODIS satellite imagery Mapping irrigated lands across the United States using MODIS satellite imagery

This book opens a new pathway for global mapping that is focused on a specific land use theme, such as irrigated or rain-fed croplands and classes within these themes. Since croplands use most of the water consumed by humans, specific knowledge of irrigated and rain-fed croplands will be critical for precise estimates of water use. At present and in the coming decades, irrigated and rain...
Authors
J.F. Brown, S.K. Maxwell, Md Shahriar Pervez

Diverse elevational diversity gradients in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, U.S.A.: Chapter 10 Diverse elevational diversity gradients in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, U.S.A.: Chapter 10

Why does the number of species vary geographically? The earliest naturalists puzzled over this question, as do many biogeographers and macroecologists today. Over the last 200-plus years, the most striking geographic pattern in species richness – the decline in species richness with increasing latitude – has received the most attention. Thanks to many recent theoretical developments...
Authors
Nathan J. Sanders, Robert R. Dunn, Matthew C. Fitzpatrick, Christopher E. Carlton, Michael R. Pogue, Charles R. Parker, Theodore R. Simons

Mirror Lake: Past, present and future Mirror Lake: Past, present and future

This chapter discusses the hydrological and biogeochemical characteristics of Mirror Lake and the changes that resulted from air-land-water interactions and human activities. Since the formation of Mirror Lake, both the watershed and the lake have undergone many changes, such as vegetation development and basin filling. These changes are ongoing, and Mirror Lake is continuing along an...
Authors
Gene E. Likens, James W. LaBaugh

Volcanoes, Observation and Impact Volcanoes, Observation and Impact

No abstract available.
Authors
Clifford H. Thurber, Stephanie G. Prejean
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