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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

Synthesis

The goal of this report is to examine changes in the current environment and living conditions of the coastal and tundra communities of northwestern Canada, northern Alaska, and the northern Far East of Russia – the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort (BCB) region – and to understand how people are coping and adapting to these changes. The report seeks to describe how life in this region is changing in the co
Authors
Larry D. Hinzman, Peter Outridge, James M. Gamble, Lyman K. Thorsteinson, Sarah F. Trainor, John E. Walsh, Alexander Klepikov

Geology and vertebrate paleontology of Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, Nevada, USA

Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument (TUSK) preserves 22,650 acres of the upper Las Vegas Wash in the northern Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, USA. TUSK is home to extensive and stratigraphically complex groundwater discharge (GWD) deposits, called the Las Vegas Formation, which represent springs and desert wetlands that covered much of the valley during the late Quaternary. The GWD deposits recor
Authors
Kathleen B. Springer, Jeffrey S. Pigati, Eric Scott

A primer to living shorelines

No abstract available.
Authors
Donna Marie Bilkovic, Molly M. Mitchell, Jason D. Toft, Megan K. LaPeyre

A synthesis of living shoreline perspectives

The main goal of this summary chapter is to synthesize author perspectives across the contributed chapters, make recommendations on the correct usage of the term living shorelines, and offer guidance for planning in the future. Nature-based approaches are being applied globally, as signified by the breadth of geographic coverage in this book. The author’s institutions and locations of study span t
Authors
Jason D. Toft, Donna Marie Bilkovic, Molly M. Mitchell, Megan K. LaPeyre

Adaptive management of rangeland systems

Adaptive management is an approach to natural resource management that uses structured learning to reduce uncertainties for the improvement of management over time. The origins of adaptive management are linked to ideas of resilience theory and complex systems. Rangeland management is particularly well suited for the application of adaptive management, having sufficient controllability and reducib
Authors
Craig R. Allen, David G. Angeler, Joseph J. Fontaine, Ahjond S. Garmestani, Noelle M. Hart, Kevin L. Pope, Dirac Twidwell

Chemical tracer methods

Tracers have a wide variety of uses in hydrologic studies: providing quantitative or qualitative estimates of recharge, identifying sources of recharge, providing information on velocities and travel times of water movement, assessing the importance of preferential flow paths, providing information on hydrodynamic dispersion, and providing data for calibration of water flow and solute-transport mo
Authors
Richard W. Healy

Coldwater Streams

No abstract available.
Authors
Robert E. Gresswell, Bruce C. Vondracek

Comparison of oyster populations, shoreline protection service, and site characteristics at seven created fringing reefs in Louisiana: Key parameters and responses to consider

Coastal erosion threatens many low-lying areas around the globe. Rising sea levels from climate change are expected to increase coastal erosion and exacerbate flooding and storm surges. This is particularly true in low-lying coastal Louisiana, which developed as the Mississippi River changed course (delta switching) over the past 7000 years. Periods of land loss and gain resulted in an intricate c
Authors
Megan K. LaPeyre, Lindsay Schwarting Miller, Shea Miller, Earl Melancon

Considerations in representing human individuals in social ecological models

In this chapter we focus on how to integrate the human individual into social-ecological systems analysis, and how to improve research on individual thought and action regarding the environment by locating it within the broader social-ecological context. We discuss three key questions as considerations for future research: (1) is human thought conceptualized as a dynamic and adaptive process, (2)
Authors
Michael J. Manfredo, Tara L. Teel, Michael C. Gavin, David C. Fulton

Earth Stewardship: An initiative by the Ecological Society of America to foster engagement to sustain Planet Earth

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) has responded to the growing commitment among ecologists to make their science relevant to society through a series of concerted efforts, including the Sustainable Biosphere Initiative (1991), scientific assessment of ecosystem management (1996), ESA’s vision for the future (2003), Rapid Response Teams that respond to environmental crises (2005), and the Ear
Authors
F. Stuart Chapin, Steward T. A. Pickett, Mary E. Power, Scott L. Collins, Jill S. Baron, David W. Inouye, Monica G. Turner