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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

Inverse modeling with RZWQM2 to predict water quality

This chapter presents guidelines for autocalibration of the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM2) by inverse modeling using PEST parameter estimation software (Doherty, 2010). Two sites with diverse climate and management were considered for simulation of N losses by leaching and in drain flow: an almond [Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D.A. Webb] orchard in the San Joaquin Valley, California and the Walnu
Authors
Bernard T. Nolan, Robert W. Malone, Liwang Ma, Christopher T. Green, Michael N. Fienen, Dan B. Jaynes

Lead in birds

Lead is a highly toxic heavy metal that acts as a nonspecific poison affecting all body systems and has no known biological requirement. Absorption of low concentrations may result in a wide range of sublethal effects in animals, and higher concentrations may result in mortality (Demayo et al. 1982).Lead has been mined and smelted by humans for centuries, but the use of lead-based products increas
Authors
J. Christian Franson, Deborah J. Pain

Magnetic Observatory

No abstract available.
Authors
Jeffrey J. Love

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
Authors
Gerold Morrison, Holly Greening, Kimberly K. Yates

Modeling fate and transport of fecal bacteria in surface water

This chapter provides a basic review of deterministic and empirical statistical modelling and their application for predicting microbiological surface water quality.
Authors
Meredith B. Nevers, Alexandria B. Boehm

Modern methods of estimating biodiversity from presence-absence surveys

No abstract available.
Authors
Robert M. Dorazio, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Aaron M. Ellison

Molecular insights into the biology of Greater Sage-Grouse

Recent research on Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) genetics has revealed some important findings. First, multiple paternity in broods is more prevalent than previously thought, and leks do not comprise kin groups. Second, the Greater Sage-Grouse is genetically distinct from the congeneric Gunnison sage-grouse (C. minimus). Third, the Lyon-Mono population in the Mono Basin, spanning
Authors
Sara J. Oyler-McCance, Thomas W. Quinn

Multidisciplinary approaches to climate change questions

Multidisciplinary approaches are required to address the complex environmental problems of our time. Solutions to climate change problems are good examples of situations requiring complex syntheses of ideas from a vast set of disciplines including science, engineering, social science, and the humanities. Unfortunately, most ecologists have narrow training, and are not equipped to bring their envir
Authors
Beth A. Middleton

Natural radium and radon tracers to quantify water exchange and movement in reservoirs

Radon and radium isotopes are routinely used to quantify exchange rates between different hydrologic reservoirs. Since their recognition as oceanic tracers in the 1960s, both radon and radium have been used to examine processes such as air-sea exchange, deep oceanic mixing, benthic inputs, and many others. Recently, the application of radon-222 and the radium-quartet (223,224,226,228Ra) as coastal
Authors
Christopher G. Smith

Networks - The assessment of marine reserve networks: Guidelines for ecological evaluation

As marine ecosystems are plagued by an ever-increasing suite of threats including climate change, pollution, habitat degradation, and fisheries impacts (Roessig et al., 2004; Lotze et al., 2006; Jackson, 2008), there are now no ocean areas that are exempt from anthropogenic impacts (Halpern et al., 2008). In order to preserve marine biodiversity, ecosystem function, and the goods and services prov
Authors
Kirsten Grorud-Colvert, Joachim Claudet, Mark Carr, Jennifer Caselle, Jon Day, Alan M. Friedlander, Sarah E. Lester, Thierry Lison de Loma, Brian Tissot, Dan Malone