Publications
Publications from USGS science centers throughout the Southeast Region.
Filter Total Items: 9969
Population viability analyses for three Macrhybopsis spp. of the Lower Missouri River
Recent declines in three species of chubs that inhabit the lower Missouri River (shoal chub M. hyostoma, sicklefin chub M. meeki and sturgeon chub M. gelida) have become a concern in the management of their own populations and the endangered pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) that feeds on them. These chub populations encounter threats from fish predation and habitat loss. With the recent adva
Authors
Janice L. Albers, Mark L. Wildhaber, Nicholas S. Green
Analysis of multi-decadal wetland changes, and cumulative impact of multiple storms 1984 to 2017
Land-cover classification analysis using Landsat satellite imagery acquired between 1984 and 2017 quantified short- (post-Hurricane Sandy) and long-term wetland-change trends along the Maryland and Virginia coasts between Metompkin Bay, VA and Ocean City, MD. Although there are limited options for upland migration of wetlands in the study area, regression analysis showed that wetland area increase
Authors
Steven H. Douglas, Julie Bernier, Kathryn Smith
Pulsed salmonfly emergence and its potential contribution to terrestrial detrital pools
Adult aquatic insects are a globally important subsidy in terrestrial food webs. However, our understanding of their importance is largely limited to studies that measure predation of live insects by terrestrial predators. Yet the flux of adult aquatic insects to terrestrial detrital pools may also be an important subsidy pathway, particularly in cases where insect production exceeds the consumpti
Authors
Jeff Wesner, David Walters, Robert E. Zuellig
Mixed-chemical exposure and predicted effects potential in wadeable southeastern USA streams
Complex chemical mixtures have been widely reported in larger streams but relatively little work has been done to characterize them and assess their potential effects in headwaterstreams. In 2014, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) sampled 54 Piedmont streams over ten weeks and measured 475 unique organic compounds using five analytical methods. Maximum and median exposure conditions were
Authors
Paul M. Bradley, Celeste A. Journey, Jason P. Berninger, Daniel T. Button, Jimmy M. Clark, Steven R. Corsi, Laura A. DeCicco, Kristina G. Hopkins, Bradley J. Huffman, Naomi Nakagaki, Julia E. Norman, Lisa H. Nowell, Sharon L. Qi, Peter C. Van Metre, Ian R. Waite
Water-quality trends in US rivers: Exploring effects from streamflow trends and changes in watershed management
We present a conceptual model that explores the relationship of streamflow trends to 15 water-quality parameters at 370 sites across the contiguous United States (US). Our analytical framework uses discrete water-quality data, daily streamflow records, and a statistical model to estimate water-quality trends between 1982 and 2012 and parse these trends into the amount of change attributed to trend
Authors
Jennifer C. Murphy, Lori A. Sprague
Resolving the status of the genera Gastrophysus and Geneion in the family Tetraodontidae (Teleostei: Tetraodontiformes)
Maintaining a current list of valid names and taxonomy for biodiversity is an ever-increasing challenge for the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS 2017). Advances in molecular techniques and the discovery of many cryptic taxa have dramatically increased the number of species and resulted in revised interpretation of phylogenetic relationships. Occasionally it is necessary to resolve dis
Authors
Howard L. Jelks
A diverse suite of pharmaceuticals contaminates stream and riparian food webs
A multitude of biologically active pharmaceuticals contaminate surface waters globally, yet their presence in aquatic food webs remain largely unknown. Here, we show that over 60 pharmaceutical compounds can be detected in aquatic invertebrates and riparian spiders in six streams near Melbourne, Australia. Similar concentrations in aquatic invertebrate larvae and riparian predators suggest direct
Authors
Erinn K. Richmond, Emma J. Rosi, David M. Walters, Jerker Fikk, Stephen K. Hamilton, Tomas Brodin, Anna Sundelin, Michael R. Grace
Quantifying uncertainty in Sr/Ca-based estimates of SST from the coral Orbicella faveolata
The strontium to calcium ratio (Sr/Ca) in aragonitic skeletons of massive corals provides a proxy for sea surface temperature (SST) that can be used to reconstruct paleoclimates across decades, centuries, and, potentially, millennia. Determining the reproducibility of Sr/Ca records among contemporaneous coral colonies from the same region is critical to quantifying uncertainties associated with th
Authors
Jennifer A. Flannery, Julie N. Richey, Lauren Toth, Ilsa B. Kuffner, Richard Z. Poore
Ontogenetic changes in swimming speed of silver carp, bighead carp, and grass carp larvae: implications for larval dispersal
Bighead, silver, and grass carps are invasive in the waterways of central North America, and grass carp reproduction in tributaries of the Great Lakes has now been documented. Questions about recruitment potential motivate a need for accurate models of egg and larval dispersal. Quantitative data on swimming behaviors and capabilities during early ontogeny are needed to improve these dispersal mode
Authors
Amy E. George, Tatiana Garcia, Benjamin H. Stahlschmidt, Duane Chapman
Assessing the impact of open-ocean and back-barrier shoreline change on Dauphin Island, Alabama, at multiple time scales over the last 75 years
Dauphin Island and Little Dauphin Island, collectively, make up a geomorphically complex barrier island system located along Alabama’s southern coast, separating Mississippi Sound from the Gulf of Mexico and Mobile Bay. The barrier island system provides numerous economical (tourism, fisheries) and natural (habitat for migratory birds, natural protection of inland and coastal areas from storms) be
Authors
Christopher G. Smith, Joseph W. Long, Rachel E. Henderson, Paul R. Nelson
Simulation of groundwater flow and analysis of projected water use for the Rush Springs aquifer, western Oklahoma
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation and the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, (1) quantified the groundwater resources of the Rush Springs aquifer in western Oklahoma by developing a numerical groundwater-flow model, (2) evaluated the effects of estimated equal-proportionate-share (EPS) pumping rates on aquifer storage and streamflow for time periods of 20, 40,
Authors
J.H. Ellis
Optimal spatial allocation of control effort to manage invasives in the face of imperfect detection and misclassification
Imperfect detection and misclassification errors are often ignored in the context of invasive species management. Here we present an approach that combines spatially explicit models and an optimization technique to design optimal search and destroy strategies based on noisy monitoring observations. We focus on two invasive plants, melaleuca (Melaleuca quinquenervia) and Old World climbing fern (Ly
Authors
Mathieu Bonneau, Julien Martin, Nathalie Peyrard, LeRoy Rodgers, Christina M. Romagosa, Fred A. Johnson