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.
Filter Total Items: 6071
Fossil plants from a proximal alluvial-fan complex: Implications for late Paleozoic sedimentary processes in western tropical Pangea
No abstract available.
Authors
Jacqueline E. Huntoon, Krystle Boks, Len Mankowski, Tara L. Campbell Wyrembelski, Russell Dubiel, John D. Stanesco
Bioavailability and bioaccumulation of metal-based engineered nanomaterials in aquatic environments: Concepts and processes
Bioavailability of Me-ENMs to aquatic organisms links their release into the environment to ecological implications. Close examination shows some important differences in the conceptual models that define bioavailability for metals and Me-ENMs. Metals are delivered to aquatic animals from Me-ENMs via water, ingestion, and incidental surface exposure. Both metal released from the Me-ENM and uptake
Authors
Samuel N. Luoma, Farhan R. Khan, Marie-Noële Croteau
Spatially explicit modeling to evaluate regional stream water quality
Spatially referenced regressions on watershed attributes (SPARROW) models have been developed and applied over the past two decades to address the need for large-scale, spatially explicit information on stream water quality conditions. The strength of SPARROW models is that they describe the primary environmental processes that affect the supply and transport of contaminant mass in watersheds, bas
Authors
Stephen D. Preston, Richard B. Alexander, Gregory Schwarz, Richard A. Smith
Habitat characteristics of North American tortoises
North American tortoises are distributed in semi-arid and temperate deserts and coastal regions of the southern United States and Mexico. The five species currently recognized each have specific habitat requirements, which they fulfill through their selection of, and interaction with unique habitat constituents. In this chapter we discuss the physiographic and geological associations, perennial an
Authors
Kenneth E. Nussear, Tracey D. Tuberville
Slope failures and timing of turbidity flows north of Puerto Rico
The submerged carbonate platform north of Puerto Rico terminates in a high (3,000–4,000 m) and in places steep (>45°) slope characterized by numerous landslide scarps including two 30–50 km-wide amphitheater-shaped features. The origin of the steep platform edge and the amphitheaters has been attributed to: (1) catastrophic failure, or (2) localized failures and progressive erosion. Determining wh
Authors
Uri S. ten Brink, Jason D. Chaytor
Biodiversity loss and infectious diseases
When conservation biologists think about infectious diseases, their thoughts are mostly negative. Infectious diseases have been associated with the extinction and endangerment of some species, though this is rare, and other factors like habitat loss and poorly regulated harvest still are the overwhelming drivers of endangerment. Parasites are pervasive and play important roles as natural enemies o
Authors
Kevin D. Lafferty
Conflict diamonds as an example of natural resource conflict
No abstract available.
Authors
Peter G. Chirico, Katherine C. Malpeli
Generalisation operators
This chapter summarises cartographic generalisation operators used to generalise geospatial data. It includes a review of recent approaches that have been tested or implemented to generalise networks, points, or groups. Emphasis is placed on recent advances that permit additional flexibility to tailor generalisation processing in particular geographic contexts, and to permit more advanced types of
Authors
Larry V. Stanislawski, Barbara P. Buttenfield, Pia Bereuter, Sandro Savino, Cynthia A. Brewer
The role of infectious disease in marine communities
Marine ecologists recognize that infectious diseases play and important role in ocean ecosystems. This role may have increased in some host taxa over time (Ward and Lafferty 2004). We begin this chapter by introducing infectious agents and their relationships with their hosts in marine systems. We then put infectious disease agents with their hosts in marine systems. We then put infectious disease
Authors
Kevin D. Lafferty, C. Drew Harvell
Distribution of soil organic carbon in the conterminous United States
The U.S. Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) database provides detailed soil mapping for most of the conterminous United States (CONUS). These data have been used to formulate estimates of soil carbon stocks, and have been useful for environmental models, including plant productivity models, hydrologic models, and ecological models for studies of greenhouse gas exchange. The data were compiled by the
Authors
Norman B. Bliss, Sharon Waltman, Larry T. West, Anne Neale, Megan Mehaffey
Sampling considerations in the mining environment
No abstract available.
Authors
Kathleen S. Smith, Virginia T. McLemore, Carol C. Russell