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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Foreword: Contributions of Arctic PRISM to monitoring western hemispheric shorebirds
Long-term monitoring of populations is of paramount importance to understanding responses of organisms to global environmental change and to evaluating whether conservation practices are yielding intended results through time (Wiens 2009). The population status of many shorebird species, the focus of this volume, remain poorly known. Long-distance migrant shorebirds have proven particularly diffic
Authors
Susan K. Skagen, Paul A. Smith, Brad A. Andres, Garry Donaldson, Stephen Brown
Chapter 7: The hydrothermal diamond anvil cell (HDAC) for Raman spectroscopic studies of geological fluids at high pressures and temperatures
In this chapter, we describe the hydrothermal diamond-anvil cell (HDAC), which is specifically designed for experiments on systems with aqueous fluids to temperatures up to ~1000ºC and pressures up to a few GPa to tens of GPa. This cell permits optical observation of the sample and the in situ determination of properties by ‘photon-in photon-out’ techniques such as Raman spectroscopy. Several meth
Authors
Christian Schmidt, I-Ming Chou
Analysis options for estimating status and trends in long-term monitoring
This chapter describes methods for estimating long-term trends in ecological parameters. Other chapters in this volume discuss more advanced methods for analyzing monitoring data, but these methods may be relatively inaccessible to some readers. Therefore, this chapter provides an introduction to trend analysis for managers and biologists while also discussing general issues relevant to trend asse
Authors
Jonathan Bart, Hawthorne L. Beyer
Future opportunities and challenges in remote sensing of drought
The value of satellite remote sensing for drought monitoring was first realized more than two decades ago with the application of Normalized Difference Index (NDVI) data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) for assessing the effect of drought on vegetation. Other indices such as the Vegetation Health Index (VHI) were also developed during this time period, and applied to AVHRR
Authors
Brian D. Wardlow, Martha C. Anderson, Justin Sheffield, Brad Doorn, James Verdin, Xiwu Zhan, Matt Rodell
Smolt physiology and endocrinology
The parr-smolt transformation of anadromous salmonids is a suite of behavioral, morphological, and physiological changes that are preparatory for downstream migration and seawater entry. The timing of smolt development varies among species, occurring soon after hatching in pink and chum salmon and after one to several years in Atlantic salmon. In many species the transformation is size dependent a
Authors
Stephen D. McCormick
Advances in spectroscopic methods for quantifying soil carbon
The current gold standard for soil carbon (C) determination is elemental C analysis using dry combustion. However, this method requires expensive consumables, is limited by the number of samples that can be processed (~100/d), and is restricted to the determination of total carbon. With increased interest in soil C sequestration, faster methods of analysis are needed, and there is growing interest
Authors
James B. Reeves, Gregory W. McCarty, Francisco Calderon, W. Dean Hively
Shrews, rats, and a polecat in "the pardoner’s tale"
While historically existing animals and literary animal characters inform allegorical and metaphorical characterization in The Canterbury Tales, figurative usage does not erase recognition of the material animal. "The Pardoner's Tale," for one, challenges the terms of conventional animal metaphors by refocusing attention on common animals as common animals and common human creatures as something w
Authors
Sandy Feinstein, Neal Woodman
Ecological consequences of manipulative parasites
This chapter considers the context in which manipulative parasites could have noticeable ecological effects. By this, we mean that a manipulation of a host that benefits a parasite can also indirectly affect other non-hosts in the system, sometimes in dramatic fashion. Such ecosystem-level changes could occur for manipulative parasites that have a strong effect on their host, a high rate of infect
Authors
Kevin D. Lafferty, A. M. Kuris, Michel Loreau
The science, information, and engineering needed to manage water availability and quality in 2050
This chapter explores four water resources issues: 1) hydrologic variability, hazards, water supply and ecosystem preservation; 2) urban landscape design; 3) non-point source water quality, and 4) climate change, resiliency, and nonstationarity. It also considers what science, technology, and engineering practice may be needed in the coming decades to sustain water supplies and ecosystems in the
Authors
Robert M. Hirsch
Management case study: Tampa Bay, Florida
Tampa Bay, Florida,USA, is a shallow,subtropical estuary that experienced severe cultural eutrophication between the 1940s and 1980s, a period when the human population of its watershed quadrupled. In response, citizen action led to the formation of a public- and private-sector partnership (the Tampa Bay Estuary Program), which adopted a number of management objectives to support the restoration a
Authors
G. Morrison, H.S. Greening, K. K. Yates
Airborne LiDAR methods applied to riverine environments
No abstract available.
Authors
Jean-Stéphane Bailly, Paul J. Kinzel, Tristan Allouis, Denis Feurer, Yann Le Coarer