Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

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

Tidal Wetlands and Estuaries

1. The top 1 m of tidal wetland soils and estuarine sediments of North America contains 1,886 ± 1046 teragrams of carbon (Tg C). [High confidence, Very likely] 2. Soil carbon accumulation rate (i.e., sediment burial) in North American tidal wetlands is currently 9 ± 5 Tg C per year and estuarine carbon burial is 5 ± 3 Tg C per year. [High confidence, Likely] 3. The lateral flux of carbon from tida
Authors
Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Wei Jun Cai, Simone Alin, Andreas Andersson, Joseph Crosswell, Kenneth Dunton, Jose Martin Hernandez-Ayon, Maria Herrmann, Audra L. Hinson, Charles Hopkinson, Jennifer Howard, Xinping Hu, Sara H. Knox, Kevin Kroeger, David Lagomasino, Patrick Megonigal, Raymond Najjar, May-Linn Paulsen, Dorothy Peteet, Emily Pidgeon, Karina Schafer, Elizabeth Watson, Zhaohui Aleck Wang, Maria Tzortziou

Chesapeake Bay impact structure—Development of "brim" sedimentation in a multilayered marine target

The late Eocene Chesapeake Bay impact structure was formed in a multilayered target of seawater underlain sequentially by a sediment layer and a rock layer in a continental-shelf environment. Impact effects in the “brim” (annular trough) surrounding and adjacent to the transient crater, between the transient crater rim and the outer margin, primarily were limited to the target-sediment layer. Anal
Authors
Henning Dypvik, Gregory Gohn, Lucy Edwards, J. Wright Horton,, David Powars, Ronald Litwin

Status of tidal marsh mapping for blue carbon inventories

Remote-sensing-based maps of tidal marshes, both of their extents and carbon stocks, will play a key role in conducting greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories.The U.N. Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre has produced a new Global Distribution of Salt Marsh dataset that estimates global salt marsh area at 5.5 Mha.A Tier 1–2 GHG Inventory of U.S. Coastal Wetlands has been developed
Authors
Kristin B. Byrd, Chris Mcowen, Lauren Weatherdon, James Holmquist, Stephen Crooks

Defining blue carbon: The emergence of a climate context for coastal carbon dynamics

Blue Carbon Ecosystems (BCEs) are defined as coastal wetland ecosystems with manageable and atmospherically significant carbon stocks and fluxes.Policy and management opportunities have promoted the emergence of blue carbon as a concept and spurred scientific interest to reduce uncertainties in coastal carbon budgets.The four major BCEs are generally classified by their plant communities: tidal ma
Authors
Stephen Crooks, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Tiffany Troxler

Blue Carbon Futures: moving forward on terra firma

Maintaining coastal carbon sequestration and storage services is economically valuable in providing a potentially long-term contribution toward climate resilience, both in terms of adaptation and mitigation.392The volumetric accumulation of coastal carbon stocks is unique from other terrestrial and aquatic processes, and inconsistent use of terminology is holding back understanding of the range, m
Authors
Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Stephen Crooks, Tiffany Troxler

Evidence for widespread microbivory of endophytic bacteria in roots of vascularplants through oxidative degradation in root cell periplasmic spaces

In this chapter we present a hypothesis, and data supporting it, that vascular plants in diverse families possess symbiotic/endophytic bacteria that frequently vector on or within their seeds; seedlings degrade symbiotic bacteria within roots. Evidence of widespread microbivory was found in a survey for intracellular bacteria that we conducted including seedlings in 36 species of vascular plants d
Authors
James F. White, Monica S. Torres, Satish Kumar Verma, Matthew T. Elmore, Kurt P. Kowalski, Kathryn L. Kingsley

Assessment of potential risks from renewable energy development and other anthropogenic factors to wintering Golden Eagles in the western United States

Wind and other energy development are expanding rapidly and on an unprecedented scale within the range of the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) while other anthropogenic-related changes, wildfires, invasive plants, drought, and climate change are altering or destroying native habitats occupied by Golden Eagles. However, the potential effects of these factors on North American Golden Eagle populatio
Authors
Erica H. Craig, Mark R. Fuller, Tim H. Craig, Falk Huettmann

Land subsidence

Land subsidence in the United States is inextricably linked to the development of groundwater—one of the Nation’s most valuable natural resources. More than 80 percent of the identified subsidence in the United States is a consequence of anthropogenic impact on water resources. Three processes account for most of the water-related subsidence—the compaction of aquifer systems, the drainage and subs
Authors
Michelle Sneed

Inland waters

1. The total flux of carbon—which includes gaseous emissions, lateral flux, and burial—from inland waters across the conterminous United States (CONUS) and Alaska is 193 teragrams of carbon (Tg C) per year. The dominant pathway for carbon movement out of inland waters is the emission of carbon dioxide gas across water surfaces of streams, rivers, and lakes (110.1 Tg C per year), a flux not identif
Authors
David E. Butman, Robert G. Striegl, Sarah M. Stackpoole, Paul Del Giorgio, Yves Prairie, Darren Pilcher, Peter Raymond, Fernando Paz Pellat, Javier Alcocer

Blue carbon as a tool to support coastal management and restoration: Bringing wetlands to market case study

A collaborative research approach involving substantial end user and stakeholder engagement was applied to great effect to guide broad, integrated investigation of the science, policy, and management of blue carbon and carbon markets as drivers for coastal wetland management and restoration.Expanding awareness about blue carbon concepts among local, state, and federal agencies and the public was f
Authors
Tonna-Marie Surgeon-Rogers, Kevin D. Kroeger, Meagan Gonneea Eagle, Omar I. Abdul-Aziz, Jianwu Tang, Serena Moseman-Valtierra

Gravity signature of basaltic fill in Kīlauea caldera, Island of Hawai‘i

Characterization of the subsurface structure of a volcanic edifice is essential to understanding volcanic behavior. One of the best-studied volcanoes is Kīlauea (Island of Hawai‘i). Geological evidence suggests that the formation of the summit caldera of Kīlauea is cyclic, with repeated collapse followed by filling with lava. The most recent collapse occurred ca. 1500 CE, producing a basin that is
Authors
Lydie Gailler, James P. Kauahikaua

The North American carbon budget: Past, present, and future

This chapter nicely summarizes and synthesizes the latest scientific information on the North American carbon budget by incorporating terrestrial, anthropogenic, aquatic, and coastal margin CO2 and CH4dynamics. Starting with a historical context, the chapter summarizes current understanding of the magnitudes and trends of carbon stocks and fluxes at the continental scale. It also provides a region
Authors
A. David McGuire, Daniel J. Hayes, Rodrigo Vargas, Simone R. Alin, Richard T. Conant, Lucy R. Hutrya, Andrew R. Jacobson, Werner A. kurz, Benjamine Poulter, Christopher W. Woodall, Shuguang Liu