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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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Karst
Karst areas present unique hydrologic and hydrogeological characteristics that
are often challenging to investigate. These characteristics are largely dependent
on the extent of development of solution conduits within the underlying bedrock,
and the resulting integration of surface and subsurface drainage components
into a karst aquifer system. The investigation and characterization of
karst aquif
Authors
C.J. Taylor, D.H. Doctor
Dynamic distributions and population declines of Golden-winged Warblers
With an estimated breeding population in 2010 of 383,000 pairs, the Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) is among the most vulnerable and steeply declining of North American passerines. This species also has exhibited among the most dynamic breeding distributions, with populations expanding and then contracting over the past 150 years in response to regional habitat changes, interactions
Authors
Kenneth V. Rosenberg, Tom Will, David A. Buehler, Sara Barker Swarthout, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Ruth E. Bennett, Richard Chandler
Expert elicitation of population-level effects of disturbance
Expert elicitation is a rigorous method for synthesizing expert knowledge to inform decision making and is reliable and practical when field data are limited. We evaluated the feasibility of applying expert elicitation to estimate population-level effects of disturbance on marine mammals. Diverse experts estimated parameters related to mortality and sublethal injury of North Atlantic right whales
Authors
Erica Fleishman, Mark Burgman, Michael C. Runge, Robert S Schick, Scott Krauss
Geology, selected geophysics, and hydrogeology of the White River and parts of the Great Salt Lake Desert regional groundwater flow systems, Utah and Nevada
The east-central Great Basin near the Utah-Nevada border contains two great
groundwater flow systems. The first, the White River regional groundwater
flow system, consists of a string of hydraulically connected hydrographic basins
in Nevada spanning about 270 miles from north to south. The northernmost
basin is Long Valley and the southernmost basin is the Black Mountain area, a
valley bord
Authors
Peter D. Rowley, Gary L. Dixon, James M. Watrus, Andrews G. Burns, Edward A. Mankinen, Edwin H. McKee, Keith T. Pari, E. Bartlett Ekren, William G. Patrick
Regional land subsidence caused by the compaction of susceptible aquifer systems accompanying groundwater extraction
Land subsidence includes both gentle downwarping and sudden sinking of
segments of the land surface. Major anthropogenic causes of land subsidence
are extraction of fluids including water, oil, and gas. Measurement and detec-
tion of land subsidence include both ground-based and remotely sensed air-
borne and space-based methods. Methods for measurement of subsidence at
points include differential
Authors
Devin L. Galloway, Stanley A. Leake
Watershed geomorphological characteristics
This chapter describes commonly used geomorphological characteristics that are useful for analyzing watershed-scale hydrology and sediment dynamics. It includes calculations and measurements for stream network features and areal basin characteristics that cover a range of spatial and temporal scales and dimensions of watersheds. Construction and application of longitudinal profiles are described i
Authors
Faith A. Fitzpatrick
Desert Scrublands
Desert scrublands comprise the lower to mid-elevation portions of four different ecosystems including the Chihuahuan, Great Basin, Mojave and Sonoran Deserts. Together the area inside their outer boundaries includes over 8% of the surface area of the United States. Despite significant differences in the flora and fauna of these bioregions they all share the common trait of being arid shrub-steppe
Submarine landslides in Arctic sedimentation: Canada Basin
Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean is the least studied ocean basin in the World. Marine seismic field
programs were conducted over the past 6 years using Canadian and American icebreakers. These expeditions
acquired more than 14,000 line-km of multibeam bathymetric and multi-channel seismic reflection data
over abyssal plain, continental rise and slope regions of Canada Basin; areas where little
Authors
David C. Mosher, John Shimeld, Deborah R. Hutchinson, N Lebedova-Ivanova, C. Chapman
Highly conductive horizons in the Mesoproterozoic Belt-Purcell Basin: Sulfidic early basin strata as key markers of Cordilleran shortening and Eocene extension
We investigated the crustal structure of the central Mesoproterozoic Belt Basin in northwestern Montana and northern Idaho using a crustal resistivity section derived from a transect of new short- and long-period magnetotelluric (MT) stations. Two- and three-dimensional resistivity models were generated from these data in combination with data collected previously along three parallel short-period
Authors
Paul A. Bedrosian, Stephen E. Box
Graptemys pearlensis Ennen, Lovich, Kreiser, Selman, and Qualls 2010 – Pearl River Map Turtle
The Pearl River Map Turtle, Graptemys pearlensis (Family Emydidae), is a moderate-sized aquatic turtle endemic to the Pearl River drainage of Louisiana and Mississippi. This taxon has long been a cryptic species, as it was considered part of G. pulchra before 1992 and part of G. gibbonsi until 2010. Graptemys pearlensis exhibits sexual dimorphism, with adult females being considerably larger (cara
Authors
Joshua R. Ennen, Jeffrey E. Lovich, Robert L. Jones
Hydrology of flooded and wetland forests
In this chapter we will examine the hydrology of forested areas that are subject to soil saturation by rain, groundwater, or surface flooding. They include mangroves and other tidal forests, the forested portions of peatlands, and tree dominated wetlands defined by the Ramsar Convention (Mathews 1993). They also include estuarine tidal forests, palustrine forested wetlands, and the portion
Authors
T. M. Williams, Ken W. Krauss, T. Okruszko
Pleistocene Lake Bonneville as an analog for extraterrestrial lakes and oceans
Geomorphic confirmation for a putative ancient Mars ocean relies on analog comparisons of coastal-like features such as shoreline feature attributes and temporal scales of process formation. Pleistocene Lake Bonneville is one of the few large, geologically young, terrestrial lake systems that exemplify well-preserved shoreline characteristics that formed quickly, on the order of a thousand years o
Authors
M.A. Chan, P. Jewell, T. J. Parker, J. Ormo, Chris Okubo, G. Komatsu