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Book Chapters

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: 6063

Land-cover change detection

Land cover is the biophysical material on the surface of the earth. Land-cover types include grass, shrubs, trees, barren, water, and man-made features. Land cover changes continuously.  The rate of change can be either dramatic and abrupt, such as the changes caused by logging, hurricanes and fire, or subtle and gradual, such as regeneration of forests and damage caused by insects (Verbesselt et
Authors
Xuexia Chen, Chandra Giri, James Vogelmann

Large submarine sand waves and gravel lag substrates on Georges Bank off Atlantic Canada

Georges Bank is a large, shallow, continental shelf feature offshore of New England and Atlantic Canada. The bank is mantled with a veneer of glacial debris transported during the late Pleistocene from continental areas lying to the north. These sediments were reworked by marine processes during postglacial sea-level transgression and continue to be modified by the modern oceanic regime. The surfi
Authors
B.J. Todd, Page C. Valentine

Lidar metadata

No abstract available.
Authors
H. Karl Heidemann

Loss and modification of habitat

Amphibians live in a wide variety of habitats around the world, many of which have been modified or destroyed by human activities. Most species have unique life history characteristics adapted to specific climates, habitats (e.g., lentic, lotic, terrestrial, arboreal, fossorial, amphibious), and local conditions that provide suitable areas for reproduction, development and growth, shelter from env
Authors
Francis Lemckert, Stephen Hecnar, David S. Pilliod

Managing inherent complexity for sustainable walleye fisheries in Lake Erie

In Lake Erie, Walleye (Sander vitreus vitreus) is king. The naturally occurring species is the foundation of commercial fishing operations on the Canadian side of the lake and is a much-prized sport fish on the American side. Management of Lake Erie walleye fisheries is complex and takes place in an inter-jurisdictional setting composed of resource agencies from the states of Michigan (MDNR), Ohio
Authors
Edward F. Roseman, Richard Drouin, Marc Gaden, Roger Knight, Jeff Tyson, Yingming Zhao

Maximizing the utility of monitoring to the adaptive management of natural resources

Data collection is an important step in any investigation about the structure or processes related to a natural system. In a purely scientific investigation (experiments, quasi-experiments, observational studies), data collection is part of the scientific method, preceded by the identification of hypotheses and the design of any manipulations of the system to test those hypotheses. Data collection
Authors
William L. Kendall, Clinton T. Moore

Measuring rotational ground motions in seismological practice

No abstract available.
Authors
William H. K. Lee, John R. Evans, B. S. Huang, C. R. Hutt, C.-J. Lin, C.-C. Liu, R. L. Nigbor

Mechanics of debris flows and rock avalanches: Chapter 43

Debris flows are geophysical phenomena intermediate in character between rock avalanches and flash floods. They commonly originate as water-laden landslides on steep slopes and transform into liquefied masses of fragmented rock, muddy water, and entrained organic matter that disgorge from canyons onto valley floors. Typically including 50%–70% solid grains by volume, attaining speeds >10 m/s, and
Authors
Richard M. Iverson

Mediterranean-type climate ecosystems and fire

No abstract available.
Authors
Jon E. Keeley, William J. Bond, Ross A. Bradstock, Juli G. Pausas, Philip W. Rundel