Book Chapters
Science Quality and Integrity
The USGS provides unbiased, objective, and impartial scientific information upon which our audiences, including resource managers, planners, and other entities, rely.
The USGS provides unbiased, objective, and impartial scientific information upon which our audiences, including resource managers, planners, and other entities, rely.
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.
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Comparison of oyster populations, shoreline protection service, and site characteristics at seven created fringing reefs in Louisiana: Key parameters and responses to consider
Coastal erosion threatens many low-lying areas around the globe. Rising sea levels from climate change are expected to increase coastal erosion and exacerbate flooding and storm surges. This is particularly true in low-lying coastal Louisiana, which developed as the Mississippi River changed course (delta switching) over the past 7000 years. Periods of land loss and gain resulted in an intricate c
Authors
Megan K. LaPeyre, Lindsay Schwarting Miller, Shea Miller, Earl Melancon
Considerations in representing human individuals in social ecological models
In this chapter we focus on how to integrate the human individual into social-ecological systems analysis, and how to improve research on individual thought and action regarding the environment by locating it within the broader social-ecological context. We discuss three key questions as considerations for future research: (1) is human thought conceptualized as a dynamic and adaptive process, (2)
Authors
Michael J. Manfredo, Tara L. Teel, Michael C. Gavin, David C. Fulton
Earth Stewardship: An initiative by the Ecological Society of America to foster engagement to sustain Planet Earth
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) has responded to the growing commitment among ecologists to make their science relevant to society through a series of concerted efforts, including the Sustainable Biosphere Initiative (1991), scientific assessment of ecosystem management (1996), ESA’s vision for the future (2003), Rapid Response Teams that respond to environmental crises (2005), and the Ear
Authors
F. Stuart Chapin, Steward T. A. Pickett, Mary E. Power, Scott L. Collins, Jill S. Baron, David W. Inouye, Monica G. Turner
Extending the habitat concept to the airspace
Habitat is one of the most familiar and fundamental concepts in the fields of ecology, animal behavior, and wildlife conservation and management. Humans interact with habitats through their senses and experiences and education to such a degree that their perceptions of habitat have become second nature. For this reason, it may be difficult at first to accept the airspace as habitat, an area that i
Authors
Robert H. Diehl, Anna C. Peterson, Rachel T. Bolus, Douglas H. Johnson
Fish assemblages
Methods to sample fishes in stream ecosystems and to analyze the raw data, focusing primarily on assemblage-level (all fish species combined) analyses, are presented in this chapter. We begin with guidance on sample site selection, permitting for fish collection, and information-gathering steps to be completed prior to conducting fieldwork. Basic sampling methods (visual surveying, electrofishing,
Authors
Daniel J. McGarvey, Jeffrey A. Falke, Hiram W. Li, Judith Li
Geology along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia
Detailed geologic mapping and new SHRIMP (sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe) U-Pb zircon, Ar/Ar, Lu-Hf, 14C, luminescence (optically stimulated), thermochronology (fission-track), and palynology reveal the complex Mesoproterozoic to Quaternary geology along the ~350 km length of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. Traversing the boundary of the central and southern Appalachians, rocks along
Authors
Mark W. Carter, C. Scott Southworth, Richard P. Tollo, Arthur J. Merschat, Sara Wagner, Ava Lazor, John N. Aleinikoff
Geology and biostratigraphy of the Potomac River cliffs at Stratford Hall, Westmoreland County, Virginia
The cliffs along the Potomac River at Stratford Hall display extensive exposures of Miocene marine strata that belong successively to the Calvert, Choptank, St. Marys, and Eastover Formations. Within the lower part of this sequence, in the Calvert and Choptank Formations, there is well-developed cyclic stratigraphy. Above the Miocene units lies the marginal marine to deltaic Pleistocene Bacons Cas
Authors
Robert E. Weems, Lucy E. Edwards, Bryan D. Landacre
Geology of the Petersburg batholith, eastern Piedmont, Virginia
The 295-300 Ma Petersburg batholith in east-central Virginia forms one of the largest and northernmost of the Alleghanian plutonic complexes in the southern Appalachian Piedmont. The batholith is primarily composed of granite including massive and foliated (both magmatic and solid-state fabrics) varieties. The plutonic complex intruded medium-grade metamorphosed volcanic/plutonic rocks of the Roan
Authors
Brent E. Owens, Mark W. Carter, Christopher M. Bailey
Human footprint affects US carbon balance more than climate change
The MC2 model projects an overall increase in carbon capture in conterminous United States during the 21st century while also simulating a rise in fire causing much carbon loss. Carbon sequestration in soils is critical to prevent carbon losses from future disturbances, and we show that natural ecosystems store more carbon belowground than managed systems do. Natural and human-caused disturbances
Authors
Dominique Bachelet, Ken Ferschweiler, Tim Sheehan, Barry Baker, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Zhiliang Zhu
Human land-use and soil change
Soil change refers to the alteration of soil and soil properties over time in one location, as opposed to soil variability across space. Although soils change with pedogensis, this chapter focuses on human caused soil change. Soil change can occur with human use and management over long or short time periods and small or large scales. While change can be negative or positive; often soil change i
Authors
Skye A. Wills, Candiss O. Williams, Michael C. Duniway, Jessica Veenstra, Cathy Seybold, DeAnn Pressley