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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: 6071

History of Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA: Since the termination of Lake Bonneville

During the past half century or so diverse histories of Great Salt Lake have been written from differing perspectives and all of them have contributed ideas and essential data. The published literature, however, can be confusing and misleading. In this chapter, we review and provide context for a number of those publications. This chapter is intended as a summary of what is known, what is not know
Authors
Charles G. Oviatt, Genevieve Atwood, Robert S. Thompson

Radionuclides in surface water and groundwater

Unique among all the contaminants that adversely affect surface- and groundwater quality, radioactive compounds pose a double threat from toxicity and ionizing radiation. The high energy potential of many of these materials makes them both useful and hazardous. The unique properties of radioactive materials make them invaluable for medical and energy applications. However, mining, production, use,
Authors
Kate M. Campbell, Tyler Kane

Economic effects assessment approaches: US National Parks approach

This chapter discusses the data and methods used by the US National Park Service to estimate the economic effects of National Park visitor spending to local and regional economies. Topics covered include a summary of economic effects analyses, required data for analysis (visitor count data, trip characteristics and spending patterns, and regional economic multipliers) and how these data are combin
Authors
Catherine Cullinane Thomas, Lynne Koontz

Changes in seabed mining

Chapter 23 of the First World Ocean Assessment (WOA I) focused on marine mining, and particularly on established extractive industries, which are predominantly confined to near-shore areas, where shallow-water, near-shore aggregate and placer deposits, and somewhat deeper water phosphate deposits are found (United Nations, 2017a). At the time of publication, there were no commercially developed de
Authors
James R. Hein, Pedro Madureira, Maria João Bebianno, Ana Colaço, Luis M. Pinheiro, Richard Roth, Pradeep K. Singh, Anastasia Strati, Joshua T. Tuhumwire

Golden Eagle

The Golden Eagle inhabits a wide range of latitudes and habitats throughout the Palearctic and into northern Africa, where it is largely resident. In North America, its breeding distribution includes most of Canada and Alaska, as well as the western half of the United States and northern and western Mexico. Most eagles that nest in northern Canada and interior and northern Alaska migrate thousands
Authors
Todd E. Katzner, Michael N. Kochert, Karen Steenhof, Carol L. McIntyre, Erica H. Craig, Tricia A. Miller

Genetic considerations for rewilding the San Joaquin Desert

Genetic data are a powerful and important tool for guiding rewilding efforts and for monitoring the recovery outcomes of those efforts. When used in conjunction with historic species’ distribution records and predictive habitat suitability modeling, genetic information adds a key piece to the puzzle that will increase the probability of successful ecosystem restoration.
Authors
Jonathan Q. Richmond, Dustin A. Wood, Marjorie D Matocq

Middle Holocene hydrologic changes catalyzed by river avulsion in Big Soda Lake, Nevada, USA

Big Soda Lake is a 63 m deep, 1.6 km2 maar lake in the Great Basin of Nevada, USA. Water level in the lake is controlled by groundwater inputs from the surrounding aquifer and the only surface water input is rainfall, which is negligible. A core taken in 2010 records an 8.75 m depositional history of the lake. A radiocarbon date on fossil pollen from 8.4 m below the sediment water interface (BSWI)
Authors
Michael R. Rosen, Liam M. Reidy, Scott W. Starratt, Susan Zimmerman

Introduction to limnogeology: Progress, challenges, and opportunities: A tribute to Elizabeth Gierlowski-Kordesch

Elizabeth Gierlowski-Kordesch (1956–2016) was a leader and innovator in the specialty field of limnogeology since its beginnings in the late 1980s. Her excitement for field work and examining sediments was contagious, and she was always testing new research ideas. Beth would have been thrilled with the diversity of papers presented in the volume and the wide array of techniques used to determine t
Authors
Michael R. Rosen, Lisa Park Boush, David Finkelstein, Sila Pla-Pueyo

Lake trout rehabilitation in Lake Ontario, 2020

Each year we report on the progress toward rehabilitation of the Lake Ontario lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) population, including the results of stocking, annual assessment surveys, creel surveys, and evidence of natural reproduction observed from standard surveys performed by USGS and NYSDEC. Response to the COVID-19 pandemic limited survey effort such that spring and summer bottom trawl sur
Authors
Brian F. Lantry, Brian C. Weidel, Scott P. Minihkeim, Michael J. Connerton, Jessica Goretzke, Dimitry Gorsky, Christopher Osborne

Status of siscowet lake trout in Lake Superior in 2017

No abstract available.
Authors
M. J. Seider, S. P. Sitar, Mark Vinson

GIS object data properties

Data properties are characteristics of GIS attribute systems and values whose design and format impacts analytical and computational processing.  Geospatial data are expressed at conceptual, logical, and physical levels of database abstraction intended to represent geographical information. The appropriate design of attribute systems and selection of properties should be logically consistent and s
Authors
Dalia E. Varanka