Publications

Lower Granite Dam impounds the Snake and Clearwater Rivers in eastern Washington and northern Idaho, forming Lower Granite Reservoir. Since 1975, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has dredged sediment from the Lower Granite Reservoir and the Snake and Clearwater Rivers in eastern Washington and northern Idaho to keep navigation channels clear and to maintain the flow capacity. In recent...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maintains approximately 148 real-time streamgages in Iowa for which daily mean streamflow information is available, but daily mean streamflow data commonly are needed at locations where no streamgages are present. Therefore, the USGS conducted a study as part of a larger project in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to develop...

Microorganisms are abundant in the troposphere and can be transported vast distances on prevailing winds. This study measures the abundance and diversity of airborne bacteria and fungi sampled at the Mt. Bachelor Observatory (located 2.7 km above sea level in North America) where incoming free tropospheric air routinely arrives from distant sources across the Pacific Ocean, including...

Severe thunderstorm activity during August 8–11, 2010 in central and southeast Iowa resulted in major flooding from August 11–16, 2010, in the South Skunk River Basin. Rain gages at Ames and Story City recorded 96-hour rainfall amounts of 9.61 and 8.70 inches, respectively. The majority of the rainfall occurred during a 52-hour period, beginning late at night on August 8. Within the...

The relationship between total cholinesterase activity (TChE) and mortality in four butterfly species (great southern white [Ascia monuste], common buckeye [Junonia coenia], painted lady [Vanessa cardui], and julia butterflies [Dryas julia]) was investigated. Acute contact toxicity studies were conducted to evaluate the response (median lethal dose [LD50] and TChE) of the four species...

1. The Antillean manatee (Trichechus manatus manatus), a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, is a large-bodied marine mammal found in fresh, brackish, and marine habitats throughout the Caribbean Islands and Central and South America. Antillean manatees in Brazil are classified as critically endangered, with a census size of approximately 500 individuals. The population in the...

Gambusia affinis (Western Mosquitofish) were sampled from 18 sites representing marsh, forested wetlands, and agricultural wetlands in south Louisiana to determine distribution and infection parameters of Eustrongylides ignotus, a potentially lethal nematode parasite of wading birds, (n = 400 per site). Overall, prevalence of infection was 0.3%, with significantly higher prevalence in...

The last remaining large remnant of softwater wetlands in the US Florida Everglades lies within the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. However, Refuge water quality today is impacted by pumped stormwater inflows to the eutrophic and mineral-enriched 100-km canal, which circumscribes the wetland. Optimal management is a challenge and requires scientifically based...

Since the early 1900s, groundwater has been the primary source of municipal, industrial, and agricultural water supplies for the Houston-Galveston region, Texas. The region's combination of hydrogeology and nearly century-long use of groundwater has resulted in one of the largest areas of subsidence in the United States; by 1979, as much as 3 meters (m) of subsidence had occurred, and

In September of 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), conducted a geophysical survey to investigate the geologic controls on barrier island framework of Cat Island, Miss., as part of a broader USGS study on Barrier Island Mapping (BIM). These surveys were funded through the Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program (MsCIP)...

In September and October of 2003, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Florida Geological Survey, conducted geophysical surveys of the Atlantic Ocean offshore northeast Florida from St. Augustine, Florida, to the Florida-Georgia border. This report serves as an archive of unprocessed digital boomer subbottom profile data, trackline maps, navigation files, Geographic

In February 2009 and August 2009, the spatial distribution of radon-222 in surface water was mapped along the west-central Florida shelf as collaboration between the Response of Florida Shelf Ecosystems to Climate Change project and a U.S. Geological Survey Mendenhall Research Fellowship project. This report summarizes the surface distribution of radon-222 from two cruises and evaluates...