Reports

The wetlands of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem are recognized regionally, nationally, and hemispherically for their importance as breeding, wintering, and migratory habitat for diverse groups of waterbirds. Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge is the largest freshwater component of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem and provides critical breeding habitat for more than 60 bird species. However, the...

The amount and quality of natural resources available for terrestrial and aquatic wildlife habitats are expected to decrease throughout the world in areas that are intensively managed for urban and agricultural uses. Changes in climate and management of increasingly limited water supplies may further impact water resources essential for sustaining habitats. In this report, we document...

Wetland sediment data were collected in 2009 and 2010 throughout the southwest Louisiana Chenier Plain as part of a pilot study to develop a diatom-based proxy for past wetland water chemistry and the identification of sediment deposits from tropical storms. The complete dataset includes forty-six surface sediment samples and nine sediment cores. The surface sediment samples were...

This report describes a series of geoelectrical soundings carried out on and near Mount St. Helens volcano, Washington, in 2010–2011. These soundings used a controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotelluric (CSAMT) approach (Zonge and Hughes, 1991; Simpson and Bahr, 2005). We chose CSAMT for logistical reasons: It can be deployed by helicopter, has an effective depth of penetration of as...

The Cockfield aquifer, located in southern Arkansas, is composed of Eocene-age sand beds found near the base of the Cockfield Formation of Claiborne Group. The Wilcox aquifer, located in northeastern and southern Arkansas, is composed of Paleocene-age sand beds found in the middle to lower part of the Wilcox Group. The Cockfield and Wilcox aquifers are primary sources of groundwater. In...

In 2009, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed a Spatially Referenced Regressions on Watershed Attributes (SPARROW) surface-water quality model for the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) relating dissolved-solids sources and transport in the 1991 water year to upstream catchment characteristics. The SPARROW model focused on geologic and agricultural sources of dissolved solids in...

The Hakalau Forest Unit (HFU) of Big Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex (BINWRC) has intensively managed feral cattle (Bos taurus) and pigs (Sus scrofa) and monitored non-native ungulate presence and distribution during surveys of all managed areas since 1988. We: 1) provide results from recent ungulate surveys at HFU to determine current feral pig abundance and distribution; 2)...

The geochemical conditions, occurrence of selected trace elements, and processes controlling the occurrence of selected trace elements in groundwater were investigated in groundwater basins of the Desert and Basin and Range (DBR) hydrogeologic provinces in southeastern California as part of the Priority Basin Project (PBP) of the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA)...

This study provides information on channel and flood-plain processes and historical trends to guide effective restoration and monitoring strategies for the Sprague River Basin, a primary tributary (via the lower Williamson River) of Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. The study area covered the lower, alluvial segments of the Sprague River system, including the lower parts of the Sycan River...

This report presents updates to methods, describes additional data collected, documents modeling results, and discusses implications from an updated habitat-flow model that can be used to predict ecological habitat for fish and recreational habitat for canoeing on the main stem Shenandoah River in Virginia. Given a 76-percent increase in population predictions for 2040 over 1995 records...

From 2009 to 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Project office, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, collected water-quality samples from multiple water-bearing zones in the eastern Snake River Plain aquifer. Water samples were collected from 11 monitoring wells completed in about 250–750 feet of the upper part of the aquifer, and...

Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications important to New Hampshire, including flood mitigation, land development, agriculture, transportation planning and design, infrastructure asset inventory and management, and many others. For the State of New Hampshire, elevation data are critical for many business uses such as flood risk management, natural resources...