Reports

The magnitude of annual exceedance probability floods is greatly affected by the coefficient of skewness (skew) of the annual peak flows at a streamgage. Standard flood frequency methods recommend weighting the station skew with a regional skew to better represent regional and stable conditions. This study presents an updated analysis of a regional skew for New England developed using a...

The rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of 17 elements sharing similar chemical properties. They include yttrium (Y, atomic number 39), scandium (Sc, atomic number 21), and the 15 elements of the lanthanide series, atomic numbers 57 (lanthanum, La) to 71 (lutetium, Lu). Because promethium (Pm, atomic number 61) does not occur in the Earth’s crust and scandium typically has different...

High-frequency water-quality monitoring stations measure and transmit data, often in near real-time, from a wide range of aquatic environments to assess the quality of the Nation’s water resources. Common instrumentation for high-frequency water-quality data collection uses a multi-parameter sonde, which typically has sensors that measure and record water temperature, specific...

Nuclear research activities at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) produced liquid and solid chemical and radiochemical wastes that were disposed to the subsurface resulting in detectable concentrations of some waste constituents in the eastern Snake River Plain (ESRP) aquifer. These waste constituents may affect the water quality of the aquifer and may...

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of about 54 trillion cubic feet of gas resources within gas hydrates in the North Slope of Alaska.

The Paradox Valley in southwestern Colorado is a collapsed anticline formed by movement of the salt-rich Paradox Formation at the core of the anticline. The salinity of the Dolores River, a tributary of the Colorado River, increases substantially as it crosses the valley because of discharge of brine-rich groundwater derived from the underlying salts. Although the brine is naturally...

Humpback chub (Gila cypha Miller 1946), found only in the Colorado River Basin, was one of the first species to be given full protection under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Habitat alterations, such as changes in flow and water temperature caused by dams, and the introduction of nonnative fish have contributed to population declines in humpback chub and other native fish. These...

Keys to American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus) management include protecting wetlands and adjacent uplands and maintaining idle upland habitat. American Bitterns have been reported to use habitats with 30–203 centimeters (cm) average vegetation height, 44–99 cm visual obstruction reading, and less than 91 cm water depth.

Keys to Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus) management include providing large, open, level to gently rolling grasslands with short vegetation, and tailoring grazing regimes to local conditions. Long-billed Curlews have been reported to use habitats with 3–75 centimeters (cm) average vegetation height, less than or equal to 27 cm visual obstruction reading, 20–71 percent grass cover...

Keys to Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa) management include providing large expanses of short, sparsely to moderately vegetated landscapes that include native grasslands and wetland complexes. Optimal wetland complexes should contain a diversity of wetland classes and sizes, such as ephemeral, temporary, seasonal, semipermanent, permanent, and alkali wetlands, as well as intermittent...

The key to Mountain Plover (Charadrius montanus) management is maintaining sparsely vegetated grasslands. Grasslands can be made suitable for breeding Mountain Plovers by preserving large prairie dog (Cynomys species) towns, conducting prescribed burns, or implementing heavy grazing in some situations. Mountain Plovers have been reported to use habitats with 2–38 centimeters average...

The key to Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda) management is providing grasslands of various heights with few shrubs. In general, Upland Sandpipers forage within short vegetation and nest and rear broods within taller vegetation. Upland Sandpipers have been reported to use habitats with less than (