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.
Filter Total Items: 6063
Restoring and rehabilitating sagebrush habitats
Less than half of the original habitat of the Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus uropha-sianus) currently exists. Some has been perma-nently lost to farms and urban areas, but the remaining varies in condition from high quality to no longer adequate. Restoration of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) grassland ecosystems may be pos-sible for resilient lands. However, Greater Sage-Grouse require a wide varie
Authors
David A. Pyke
Scenarios for coastal vulnerability assessment
Coastal vulnerability assessments tend to focus mainly on climate change and especially on sea-level rise. Assessment of the influence of nonclimatic environmental change or socioeconomic change is less well developed and these drivers are often completely ignored. Given that the most profound coastal changes of the twentieth century due to nonclimate drivers are likely to continue through the twe
Authors
Robert J. Nicholls, Colin D. Woodroffe, Virginia Burkett, John Hay, Poh Poh Wong, Leonard Nurse
Science, conservation, and camera traps
Biologists commonly perceive camera traps as a new tool that enables them to enter the hitherto secret world of wild animals. Camera traps are being used in a wide range of studies dealing with animal ecology, behavior, and conservation. Our intention in this volume is not to simply present the various uses of camera traps, but to focus on their use in the conduct of science and conservation. In t
Authors
James D. Nichols, K. Ullas Karanth, Allan F. O'Connel
Seafloor morphology and coral habitat variability in a volcanic environment: Kaloko-Honokohau National Park, Hawaii, USA
Kaloko–Honokohau National Historical Park (KAHO) is one of three National Park lands along the leeward, west, or Kona, coast of the island of Hawaii, USA. The park includes 596 acres (2.4 km2) of submerged lands and marine resources within its official boundaries. The offshore region of KAHO, part of the insular shelf of the island of Hawaii, comprises a volcanic embayment that extends nearly 3.5
Authors
Ann E. Gibbs, Susan A. Cochran
Seismic seiches
Seismic seiche is a term first used by Kvale (1955) to discuss oscillations of lake levels in Norway and England caused by the Assam earthquake of August 15, 1950. This definition has since been generalized to apply to standing waves set up in closed, or partially closed, bodies of water including rivers, shipping channels, lakes, swimming pools and tanks due to the passage of seismic waves from a
Authors
Arthur McGarr
Simulating effects of microtopography on wetland specific yield and hydroperiod
Specific yield and hydroperiod have proven to be useful parameters in hydrologic analysis of wetlands. Specific yield is a critical parameter to quantitatively relate hydrologic fluxes (e.g., rainfall, evapotranspiration, and runoff) and water level changes. Hydroperiod measures the temporal variability and frequency of land-surface inundation. Conventionally, hydrologic analyses used these concep
Authors
David M. Summer
Stress conditions inferable from modern magnitudes: development of a model of fault maturity
No abstract available.
Authors
George L. Choy
Swallows as a sentinel species for contaminant exposure and effect studies
Tree swallows are an important model species to study the effects of contaminants in wild bird populations and have been used extensively in studies across North America. The advantages of swallows compared to other avian species are detailed. Three case histories are provided where swallows have been successfully used in Natural Resource Damage and Ecological Risk Assessments. The final two secti
Authors
Christine M. Custer
Swimming and other activities: applied aspects of fish swimming performance
Human activities such as hydropower development, water withdrawals, and commercial fisheries often put fish species at risk. Engineered solutions designed to protect species or their life stages are frequently based on assumptions about swimming performance and behaviors. In many cases, however, the appropriate data to support these designs are either unavailable or misapplied. This article provid
Authors
Theodore R. Castro-Santos
Swine Influenza's Promiscuous Past, Present, and Future
No abstract available.
Authors
Jeffrey S. Hall, Sean W. Nashold, Joshua L. Teslaa
Targeted surveillance for highly pathogenic avian influenza in migratory waterfowl across the conterminous United States: chapter 12
Introduction of Asian strain H5N1 Highly Pathogenic avian influenca via waterfowl migration is one potential route of entry into the United States. In conjunction with state, tribe, and laboratory partners, the United States Department of Agriculture collected and tested 124,603 wild bird samples in 2006 as part of a national surveillance effort. A sampling plan was devised to increase the probabi
Authors
Matthew L. Farnsworth, William L. Kendall, Paul F. Doherty, Ryan S. Miller, Gary C. White, James D. Nichols, Kenneth P. Burnham, Alan B. Franklin
The ANTOSTRAT legacy: Science collaboration and international transparency in potential marine mineral resource exploitation of Antarctica
The Antarctic Offshore Stratigraphy project (ANTOSTRAT; 1989–2002) was an extremely successful collaboration in international marine geological science that also lifted the perceived “veil of secrecy” from studies of potential exploitation of Antarctic marine mineral resources. The project laid the groundwork for circum-Antarctic seismic, drilling, and rock coring programs designed to decipher Ant
Authors
Alan Cooper, Peter Barker, Peter Barrett, John Behrendt, Giuliano Brancolini, Jonathan R. Childs, Carlota Escutia, Wilfried Jokat, Yngve Kristoffersen, German Leitchenkov, Howard Stagg, Manabu Tanahashi, Nigel Wardell, Peter Webb