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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Riverine habitat dynamics
The physical habitat template is a fundamental influence on riverine ecosystem structure and function. Habitat dynamics refers to the variation in habitat through space and time as the result of varying discharge and varying geomorphology. Habitat dynamics can be assessed at spatial scales ranging from the grain (the smallest resolution at which an organism relates to its environment) to the exten
Authors
R. B. Jacobson
Smolt physiology and endocrinology
Hormones play a critical role in maintaining body fluid balance in euryhaline fishes during changes in environmental salinity. The neuroendocrine axis senses osmotic and ionic changes, then signals and coordinates tissue-specific responses to regulate water and ion fluxes. Rapid-acting hormones, e.g. angiotensins, cope with immediate challenges by controlling drinking rate and the activity of ion
Authors
Stephen D. McCormick
Spatial Relation Predicates in Topographic Feature Semantics
Topographic data are designed and widely used for base maps of diverse applications, yet the power of these information sources largely relies on the interpretive skills of map readers and relational database expert users once the data are in map or geographic information system (GIS) form. Advances in geospatial semantic technology offer data model alternatives for explicating concepts and articu
Authors
Dalia E. Varanka, Holly K. Caro
Strategies for rapid global earthquake impact estimation: the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system
This chapter summarizes the state-of-the-art for rapid earthquake impact estimation. It details the needs and challenges associated with quick estimation of earthquake losses following global earthquakes, and provides a brief literature review of various approaches that have been used in the past. With this background, the chapter introduces the operational earthquake loss estimation system develo
Authors
Kishor Jaiswal, D. J. Wald
Summary, synthesis, and significance
The initial habitat suitability model estimates pre‐European suitable habitat of the Mohave ground squirrel (MGS, Xerospermophilus mohavensis) covering 19,023 km2. Impact scenarios predicted that between 10 percent and 16 percent of suitable habitat has been lost to historical human disturbances, and up to an additional 10 percent may be affected by renewable energy development in the near future.
Authors
Todd C. Esque, Kenneth E. Nussear, Richard D. Inman, Marjorie D. Matocq, Peter J. Weisberg, Thomas E. Dilts, Phillip Leitner
Tamarisk in riparian woodlands: A bird’s eye view
This chapter presents a “bird's eye” view of tamarisk and examines some issues surrounding the management of tamarisk in riparian woodlands. The focus on birds is based on the fact that they are a relatively well-studied group that can provide important insights into the role of tamarisk in riparian ecosystems. Because the decline of native riparian habitat occurred concurrently with the spread of
Authors
Mark K. Sogge, Eben H. Paxton, Charles van Riper
Tamarisk: ecohydrology of a successful plant
The title of this chapter is adapted from an influential 1987 paper, "Tamarix: Impacts of a Successful Weed" (Brotherson and Field, 1987). That paper made the case for tamarisk (Tamarix spp.) removal, as a high-water-use, invasive species that out-competed and displaced native vegetation on western U.S. rivers. The paper declared that tamarisk was capable of drying up water courses, using as much
Authors
Pamela L. Nagler, Martin F. Quigley
Tamarix, hydrology and fluvial geomorphology
This chapter explores the impact of hydrology and fluvial geomorphology on the distribution and abundance of Tamarix as well as the reciprocal effects of Tamarix on hydrologic and geomorphic conditions. It examines whether flow-regime alteration favors Tamarix establishment over native species, and how Tamarix stands modify processes involved in the narrowing of river channels and the formation of
Authors
Daniel A. Auerbach, David M. Merritt, Patrick B. Shafroth
Tampa Bay
No abstract available.
Authors
Larry Handley, Kathryn Spear, Lindsay Cross, René Baumstark, Ryan Moyer, Cindy A. Thatcher
The 2003 and 2007 wildfires in southern California
Although many residents of southern California have long recognised that wildfires in the region are an ongoing, constant risk to lives and property, the enormity of the regional fire hazard caught the world’s attention during the southern California firestorms of 2003 (Figure 5.1). Beginning on 21 October, a series of fourteen wildfires broke out across the five-county region under severe Santa A
Authors
Jon E. Keeley, Alexandra D. Syphard, C. J. Fotheringham
The Cambrian-Ordovician rocks of Sonora, Mexico, and southern Arizona, southwestern margin of North America (Laurentia)
Cambrian and Ordovician shelf, platform, and basin rocks are present in Sonora, Mexico, and southern Arizona and were deposited on the southwestern continental margin of North America (Laurentia). Cambrian and Ordovician rocks in Sonora, Mexico, are mostly exposed in scattered outcrops in the northern half of the state. Their discontinuous nature results from extensive Quaternary and Tertiary surf
Authors
William R. Page, Alta C. Harris, John E. Repetski
The issue of scale in wildlife management: The difficulty with extrapolation
No abstract available.
Authors
John Bissonette