Publications
Publications from USGS science centers throughout the Southeast Region.
Filter Total Items: 9969
The multiple-comparison trap and the Raven’s paradox—perils of using null hypothesis testing in environmental assessment
Detecting and quantifying environmental thresholds is frequently an important step in understanding ecological responses to environmental stressors. We discuss two statistical issues often encountered in threshold detection and quantification when statistical null hypothesis testing is used as a main analytical tool.The hidden multiple-comparison trap (leading to a much higher risk of a false dete
Authors
Song S. Qian, Thomas F. Cuffney
Ghost forests of Marco Island: Mangrove mortality driven by belowground soil structural shifts during tidal hydrologic alteration
Land use changes often create in situ stress and eventual mortality in mangroves as unsuitable hydroperiods are created through tidal flow alterations. Here, we document mangrove forest and soil structural changes within transects established in tidally restricted areas on Marco Island (Collier County, Florida, USA), which has broad swaths of dead-standing or unhealthy mangroves (“ghost forests”).
Authors
Ken W. Krauss, Amanda W.J. Demopoulos, Nicole Cormier, Andrew From, Jennifer P. McClain-Counts, Roy R. Lewis
Host feeding ecology and trophic position significantly influence isotopic discrimination between a generalist ectoparasite and its hosts: Implications for parasite-host trophic studies
Despite being one of the most prevalent forms of consumerism in ecological communities, parasitism has largely been excluded from food-web models. Stable isotope analysis of consumers and their diets has been widely used in the study of food webs for decades. However, the amount of information regarding parasite stable isotope ecology is limited, restricting the ability of ecologists to use stable
Authors
William G. Jenkins, Amanda W.J. Demopoulos, Paul C. Sikkel
Using reverse-time egg transport analysis for predicting Asian Carp spawning grounds in the Illinois River
Identifying spawning grounds of Asian carp is important for determining the reproductive front of invasive populations. Ichthyoplankton monitoring along the Illinois Waterway (IWW) has provided information on abundances of Asian carp eggs in the IWW's navigation pools. Post-fertilization times derived from egg development stages and water temperatures can be used to estimate spawning times of Asia
Authors
Zhenduo Zhu, David T. Soong, Tatiana Garcia, Mina Shahed Behrouz, Steven E. Butler, Elizabeth A. Murphy, Matthew J. Diana, James J. Duncker, David H. Wahl
Refinement of a regression-based method for prediction of flow-duration curves of daily streamflow in the conterminous United States
Regional regression is a common tool used to estimate daily flow-duration curves (FDCs) at ungaged locations. In this report, several refinements to a particular implementation of the regional regression method for estimating FDCs are evaluated by consideration of different methodological options through a leave-one-out cross-validation procedure in the 19 major river basins of the conterminous Un
Authors
Thomas M. Over, William H. Farmer, Amy M. Russell
The influence of different deep-sea coral habitats on sediment macrofaunal community structure and function
Deep-sea corals can create a highly complex, three-dimensional structure that facilitates sediment accumulation and influences adjacent sediment environments through altered hydrodynamic regimes. Infaunal communities adjacent to different coral types, including reef-building scleractinian corals and individual colonies of octocorals, are known to exhibit higher macrofaunal densities and distinct c
Authors
Jill R. Bourque, Amanda W.J. Demopoulos
Assessing the risk of diploid grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella in the certified triploid supply chain in Ohio
Non-native grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) have been stocked in the United States for vegetation control since the 1970s, and recent evidence suggests some natural reproduction in the Great Lakes basin. Despite all states and provinces bordering Lake Erie either banning grass carp or requiring imports of only sterile, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)-certified triploids, the majority of
Authors
Bryan T. Kinter, Jill A. Jenkins, Jeff T. Tyson
Trends in water quality of selected streams and reservoirs used for water supply in the Triangle area of North Carolina, 1989–2013
As the population of the Triangle area in central North Carolina increases, the demand for good quality drinking water from streams and lakes within the upper Neuse and upper Cape Fear River Basins also increases. The Triangle area includes Raleigh, Cary, Research Triangle Park, Durham, Chapel Hill, and the surrounding communities. The U.S. Geological Survey examined temporal trends in water quali
Authors
Mary J. Giorgino, Thomas F. Cuffney, Stephen L. Harden, Toby D. Feaster
Value of sample information in dynamic, structurally uncertain resource systems
Few if any natural resource systems are completely understood and fully observed. Instead, there almost always is uncertainty about the way a system works and its status at any given time, which can limit effective management. A natural approach to uncertainty is to allocate time and effort to the collection of additional data, on the reasonable assumption that more information will facilitate bet
Authors
Byron K. Williams, Fred A. Johnson
Dynamic minimum set problem for reserve design: Heuristic solutions for large problems
Conversion of wild habitats to human dominated landscape is a major cause of biodiversity
loss. An approach to mitigate the impact of habitat loss consists of designating reserves
where habitat is preserved and managed. Determining the most valuable areas to preserve
in a landscape is called the reserve design problem. There exists several possible formulations
of the reserve design problem, depen
Authors
Mathieu Bonneau, Regis Sabbadin, Fred A. Johnson, Bradley Stith
Streamflow, water quality, and constituent loads and yields, Scituate Reservoir Drainage Area, Rhode Island, Water Year 2016
As part of a long-term cooperative program to monitor water quality within the Scituate Reservoir watershed, the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Providence Water Supply Board collected streamflow and water-quality data at the Scituate Reservoir and tributaries. Streamflow and concentrations of chloride and sodium estimated from records of specific conductance were used to calculate
Authors
Kirk P. Smith
The flathead catfish invasion of the Great Lakes
A detailed review of historical literature and museum data revealed that flathead catfish were not historically native in the Great Lakes Basin, with the possible exception of a relict population in Lake Erie. The species has invaded Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair, Lake Huron, nearly all drainages in Michigan, and the Fox/Wolf and Milwaukee drainages in Wisconsin. They have not been collected from Lake
Authors
Pamela L. Fuller, Gary Whelan