Publications
These publications showcase the significant science conducted in our Science Centers.
Filter Total Items: 16780
Critical minerals: A review of elemental trends in comprehensive criticality studies
Mineral criticality is a subjective concept that has evolved throughout history. An abundance of literature on this topic has been published over the last decade, encompassing a variety of criteria and methodologies. To our knowledge, this work is the first large-scale effort to organize and analyze recent comprehensive criticality studies in order to determine if a consensus exists within the glo
Authors
Sarah M. Hayes, Erin A. McCullough
The Central African Republic Diamond Database—A geodatabase of archival diamond occurrences and areas of recent artisanal and small-scale diamond mining
The alluvial diamond deposits of the Central African Republic (CAR) are mined almost exclusively by way of informal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) methods. ASM sites range in diameter from a few meters to 30 meters or more, and are typically excavated by crews of diggers using hand tools, sieves, and jigs. CAR’s reported annual production has ranged from 300,000 to 470,000 carats over the
Authors
Jessica D. DeWitt, Peter G. Chirico, Sarah E. Bergstresser, Inga E. Clark
The significance of dinoflagellates in the Miocene Choptank Formation beneath the Midlothian gravels in the southeastern Virginia Piedmont
The Fall Line (formally "Tidewater Fall Line") separates the more resistant igneous, metamorphic, and consolidated sedimentary rocks of the Piedmont from the typically unconsolidated deposits of the Coastal Plain of Virginia. Widespread but now discontinuous patches of a deeply weathered sand and gravel are found west of the Fall Line, capping the highest hilltops. Near the community of Midlothian
Authors
Lucy E. Edwards, Robert E. Weems, Mark W. Carter, David Spears, David S. Powars
An intercomparison of oceanic methane and nitrous oxide measurements
Large-scale climatic forcing is impacting oceanic biogeochemical cycles and is expected to influence the water-column distribution of trace gases, including methane and nitrous oxide. Our ability as a scientific community to evaluate changes in the water-column inventories of methane and nitrous oxide depends largely on our capacity to obtain robust and accurate concentration measurements that can
Authors
Samuel Wilson, Hermann Bange, Damian Arevalo-Martinez, Jonathan Barnes, Alberto V. Borges, Ian Brown, John Bullister, Macarena Burgos, David Capelle, Michael Casso, Mercedes de la Paz, Laura Farias, Lindsay Fenwick, Sara Ferron, Gerardo Garcia, MIchael Glockzin, David Karl, Annette Kock, Sarah Laperriere, Cliff S. Law, Cara Manning, Andrew Marriner, Jukka-Pekka Myllykangas, John Pohlman, Andrew Rees, Allison Santoro, Philippe Tortll, Robert C. Upstill-Goddard, David Wisegarver, Gui-Ling Zhang, Gregor Rehder
Hydrologic characteristics and water quality of headwater streams and wetlands at the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site, Summit area, Blair and Cambria Counties, Pennsylvania, 2014–16
The Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site (ALPO) in Blair and Cambria Counties, Pennsylvania, protects historic features of the first railroad portage over the Allegheny Front and the first railroad tunnel in the United States. This report, which was completed by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the National Park Service, summarizes water resources in the headwaters of th
Authors
Charles A. Cravotta, Daniel G. Galeone, Kathy A. Penrod
Climate Assessments and Scenario Planning (CLASP)
The NE CASC boasts an interdisciplinary array of scientists, from ecologists to biologists, hydrologists to climatologists, each contributing new, original academic research to advance our understanding of the impacts of climate change on wildlife and other natural resources in the Northeast. Needed was an outreach specialist who would interface directly with the management agencies who benefited
Authors
Elda Varela Minder, Alexander Bryan
In vivo effects of 17α-ethinylestradiol, 17B-estradiol and 4-nonylphenol on insulin-like growth-factor binding proteins (igfbps) in Atlantic salmon
Feminizing endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) affect the growth and development of teleost fishes. The major regulator of growth performance, the growth hormone (Gh)/insulin-like growth-factor (Igf) system, is sensitive to estrogenic compounds and mediates certain physiological and potentially behavioral consequences of EDC exposure. Igf binding proteins (Igfbps) are key modulators of Igf activ
Authors
Jason P. Breves, Tara A. Duffy, Ingibjörg E. Einarsdottir, Björn Thrandur Björnsson, Stephen D. McCormick
Multidirectional abundance shifts among North American birds and the relative influence of multifaceted climate factors
Shifts in species distributions are major fingerprint of climate change. Examining changes in species abundance structures at a continental scale enables robust evaluation of climate change influences, but few studies have conducted these evaluations due to limited data and methodological constraints. In this study, we estimate temporal changes in abundance from North American Breeding Bird Survey
Authors
Qiongyu Huang, John R. Sauer, Ralph O. Dubayah
Observed climate change
As discussed in Chapter 1, climate is one of the principal factors that have determined the composition and extent of forest ecosystems in the Mid-Atlantic region during the past several thousand years. This chapter describes the climate trends in the assessment area that have been observed during the past century, including documented patterns of climate-related processes and extreme weather even
Authors
Patricia R. Butler-Leopold, Louis R. Iverson, Frank R. Thompson, Leslie A. Brandt, Stephen D. Handler, Maria K. Janowiak, P. Danielle Shannon, Christopher W. Swanston, Scott Bearer, Alexander Bryan, Kenneth L. Clark, Greg Czarnecki, Philip DeSenze, William D. Dijak, Jacob S. Fraser, Paul F. Gugger, Andrea Hille, Justin Hynicka, Claire A. Jantz, Matthew C. Kelly, Katrina M. Krause, Inga P. La Puma, Deborah Landau, Richard G. Lathrop, Laura P. Leites, Evan Madlinger, Stephen N. Matthews, Gulnihal Ozbay, Matthew P. Peters, Anantha Prasad, David A. Schmit, Collin Shephard, Rebecca Shirer, Nicholas S. Skowronski, Al Steele, Susan Stout, Melissa Thomas-Van Gundy, John Thompson, Richard M. Turcotte, David A. Weinstein, Alfonso Yáñez
Salt marsh loss affects tides and sediment budget in shallow bays
The current paradigm is that salt marshes and their important ecosystem services are threatened by global climate change; indeed, large marsh losses have been documented worldwide. Morphological changes associated with salt marsh erosion are expected to influence the hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics of coastal systems. Here the influence of salt marsh erosion on the tidal hydrodynamics and sedi
Authors
Carmine Donatelli, Neil K. Ganju, Xiaohe Zhang, Sergio Fagherazzi, Nicoletta Leonardi
Preliminary evaluation of behavioral response of nesting waterbirds to small unmanned aircraft flight
Small unmanned aircraft systems present an emerging technology with the potential to survey colonial waterbird populations while reducing disturbance in comparison to traditional ground counts. Recent research with these systems has been performed on some colonially nesting avian species; however, none have focused on wading bird species. During 2015–2016, this study tested the behavioral response
Authors
Kaitlyn Reintsma, Peter C. McGowan, Carl R. Callahan, Tom Collier, David Gray, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Diann J. Prosser
A geostatistical state‐space model of animal densities for stream networks
Population dynamics are often correlated in space and time due to correlations in environmental drivers as well as synchrony induced by individual dispersal. Many statistical analyses of populations ignore potential autocorrelations and assume that survey methods (distance and time between samples) eliminate these correlations, allowing samples to be treated independently. If these assumptions are
Authors
Daniel J. Hocking, James T. Thorson, Kyle O'Neil, Benjamin H. Letcher