Publications

The Planetary Geologic Mapping Protocol covers the idealized process of compiling a NASA-funded map product of a non-terrestrial solid surface planetary body for U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) publication and summarizes technical specifications of the Mapping Process for authors and reviewers. Directed by community and programmatic recommendations, the USGS Planetary Geologic Map...

Executive Summary The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) is a consortium of nine Federal, State, and academic agencies that: (1) provides timely monitoring and hazards assessment of volcanic, hydrothermal, and earthquake activity in and around Yellowstone National Park, and (2) conducts research to develop new approaches to volcano monitoring and better understand volcanic activity in...

The young of some altricial bird species hatch asynchronously, which can lead to considerable size differences among siblings. Nestling traits such as body mass, moreover, can carry over and influence post-fledging survival. Despite the potential importance of nestling mass for reproductive outcomes, however, variation in nestling mass and relationships with brood size has been described...

No abstract available.

Grain size is an important textural property of sediments and is widely used in paleoenvironmental studies as a means to infer changes in the sedimentary environment. However, grain size parameters are not always easy to interpret without a full understanding of the factors that influence grain size. Here, we measure grain size in sediment cores from the Bering slope and the Umnak...

Urban street trees are a key part of public green infrastructure in many cities, however, leaf litter on streets is a critical biogenic source of phosphorus (P) in urban stormwater runoff during Fall. This study identified mass of street leaf litter (Mleaf) and antecedent dry days (ADD) as the top two explanatory parameters that have significant predictive power of event end-of-pipe P

Rationale: Increasing exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) linked to changes in mining production processes has been implicated in the resurgence of severe lung disease in U.S. coal miners. Lung mineralogy can provide insight into particle pathogenesis. However, standard approaches to characterizing in situ particulate matter (PM) by pulmonary pathologists have poor inter...

Walleye Sander vitreus, Sauger S. canadensis, and Yellow Perch Perca flavescens (referred to as percids herein) are collectively among the most culturally and ecologically important fish species in North America. As ecosystems change in response to environmental drivers, such as climate change, nutrient loading, and invasive species, there is a need to understand how percid populations...

Streamgage record extension methods such as the maintenance of variance Type 3 (MOVE3) method improve flood frequency estimates at a target streamgage by incorporating information from a nearby, hydrologically similar index streamgage. Bulletin 17C recommends using a variation of the MOVE3 method to estimate values at the target streamgage for only a subset of the available data at the...

Geoenvironmental models were formulated by the U.S. Geological Survey in the 1990s to describe potential environmental effects of extracting different types of ore deposits in different geologic and climatic regions. This paper presents a geoenvironmental model for roll-front (roll-type) uranium deposits in the Texas Coastal Plain. The model reviews descriptive and quantitative...

Radium (Ra) is a geogenic contaminant that occurs at high levels in the Midwestern Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system (MCOAS), a regionally important sandstone and carbonate drinking water aquifer. Water utilities using the MCOAS often must adopt treatment methods or use alternative water sources to maintain high-quality drinking water. Here, we show that Ra in water obtained from a...

The transition of sagebrush-dominated (Artemisia spp.) shrublands to pinyon (Pinus spp.) and juniper (Juniperus spp.) woodlands markedly alters resource-conserving vegetation structure typical of these landscapes. Land managers and scientists in the western United States need knowledge and predictive tools for assessment and effective targeting of tree-removal treatments to conserve or...