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Publications

Publications from USGS science centers throughout the Southeast Region.

Filter Total Items: 9967

Managing multiple species with conflicting needs in the Greater Everglades

Given limited funding, natural resources decision making is riddled with tradeoffs, including which species or landscapes to prioritize for management action. Florida’s Everglades wetland is home to numerous indicator species, some of which are endangered. But with a multitude of species comes differing hydrologic requirements to yield appropriate foraging and breeding conditions for each. The Eve
Authors
Stephanie Romanach, Saira Haider, Caitlin E. Hackett, Mark McKelvy, Leonard G. Pearlstine

Rocky Mountain Region Science Exchange 2020—EarthMAP and the Colorado River Basin

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Rocky Mountain Region (RMR) hosted USGS scientists, managers, program coordinators, and leadership team members for a virtual Science Exchange during September 15–17, 2020. The Science Exchange had 216 registered participants and included 48 talks over the 3-day period. Invited speakers presented information about the novel USGS Earth Monitoring, Analysis, and Pre
Authors
Anne C. Tillery, Patrick J. Anderson, William J. Andrews, Katharine Dahm, Seth S. Haines, Robert Horton, David O'Leary, Ryan D. Taylor, Kathryn A. Thomas, Alicia Torregrosa

Hydrologic modification and channel evolution degrades connectivity on the Atchafalaya River floodplain

The Atchafalaya River Basin is the largest remaining forested wetland in the contiguous United States. Since 1960, dredging and channel erosion in the Basin have resulted in changes to the hydrologic connectivity that have not been quantified. Analyses were conducted to determine the hydraulic and geomorphic factors that have changed since discharge became controlled that may have decreased river/
Authors
Daniel Kroes, Charles R Demas, Yvonne A. Allen, Richard Day, Steve W Roberts, Jeff Varisco

A statistical framework for integrating nonparametric proxy distributions into geological reconstructions of relative sea level

Robust, proxy-based reconstructions of relative sea-level (RSL) change are critical to distinguishing the processes that drive spatial and temporal sea-level variability. The relationships between individual proxies and RSL can be complex and are often poorly represented by traditional methods that assume Gaussian likelihood distributions. We develop a new statistical framework to estimate past RS
Authors
Erica L. Ashe, Nicole S. Khan, Lauren Toth, Andrea Dutton, Robert E. Kopp

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations of reef surf zone processes driven by plunging irregular waves

As waves interact with the slopes of coral reefs and other steep bathymetry profiles, plunging breaking usually occurs where the free surface overturns and violent water motion is triggered. Resolving these surf zone processes pose significant challenges for conventional mesh-based hydrodynamic models, due to the rapidly-deforming nature of the free surface and associated flows. Yet the accurate p
Authors
Ryan J. Lowe, C. Altomare, Mark L. Buckley, Renan F. da Silva, Jeff E. Hansen, Dirk P. Rijnsdorp, J.M. Domínguez, A.J.C. Crespo

Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2011–November 30, 2012

A Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954, established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Decree authorizes diversion of water from the Delaware River Basin and requires compensating releases from certain reservoirs, owned by New York City, to be made under the supervision and direction of the River Master. The D
Authors
Vincent J. DiFrenna, William J. Andrews, Kendra L. Russell, J. Michael Norris, Robert R. Mason,

Combining tangential flow filtration and size fractionation of mesocosm water as a method for the investigation of waterborne coral diseases

The causative agents of most coral diseases today remain unknown, complicating disease response and restoration efforts. Pathogen identifications can be hampered by complex microbial communities naturally associated with corals and seawater, which create complicating “background noise” that can potentially obscure a pathogen’s signal. Here, we outline an approach to investigate waterborne coral di
Authors
James S. Evans, Valerie J. Paul, Blake Ushijima, Christina A. Kellogg

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in groundwater used as a source of drinking water in the eastern United States

In 2019, 254 samples were collected from five aquifer systems to evaluate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) occurrence in groundwater used as a source of drinking water in the eastern United States. The samples were analyzed for 24 PFAS, major ions, nutrients, trace elements, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pharmaceuticals, and tritium. Fourteen of the 24

Authors
Peter B. McMahon, Andrea K. Tokranov, Laura M. Bexfield, Bruce D. Lindsey, Tyler D. Johnson, Melissa Lombard, Elise Watson

The role of hydraulic and geomorphic complexity in predicting invasive carp spawning potential: St. Croix River, Minnesota and Wisconsin, United States

Since they were first introduced to the United States more than 50 years ago, invasive carp have rapidly colonized rivers of the Mississippi River Basin, with detrimental effects on native aquatic species. Their continued range expansion, and potential for subsequent invasion of the Great Lakes, has led to increased concern for the susceptibility of as-yet uncompromised lotic and lentic systems in
Authors
Alan Kasprak, P. Ryan Jackson, Evan M. Lindroth, J. William Lund, Jeffrey R. Ziegeweid

The occurrence of large floods in the United States in the modern hydroclimate regime: Seasonality, trends, and large-scale climate associations

Many studies investigate river floods by analyzing annual maximum series that record the largest flow of each year, including many within-bank events inconsequential for human communities. Fewer focus on larger floods, especially at the continental scale. Using 473 streamgages across the conterminous United States with near-natural flow from 1966 to 2015, we characterized the seasonality, occurren
Authors
Mathias Collins, Glenn A. Hodgkins, Stacey A. Archfield, Robert M. Hirsch

Use of riparian spiders as sentinels of persistent and bioavailable chemical contaminants in aquatic ecosystems: A review

Aquatic ecosystems around the world are contaminated with a wide range of anthropogenic chemicals, including metals and organic pollutants, that originate from point and nonpoint sources. Many of these chemical contaminants have complex environmental cycles, are persistent and bioavailable, can be incorporated into aquatic food webs, and pose a threat to the health of wildlife and humans. Identify
Authors
Matthew M. Chumchal, Gale B. Beaubien, Ray W. Drenner, Madeline P. Hannappel, Marc A. Mills, Connor I. Olson, Ryan R. Otter, Andrew C. Todd, David Walters

Human-in-the-Loop segmentation of earth surface imagery

Segmentation, or the classification of pixels (grid cells) in imagery, is ubiquitously applied in the natural sciences. Manual methods are often prohibitively time-consuming, especially those images consisting of small objects and/or significant spatial heterogeneity of colors or textures. Labeling complicated regions of transition that in Earth surface imagery are represented by collections of mi
Authors
Daniel D. Buscombe, Evan B. Goldstein, Christopher R. Sherwood, Cameron S Bodine, Jenna A. Brown, Jaycee Favela, Sharon Fitzpatrick, Christine J. Kranenburg, Jin-Si R. Over, Andrew C. Ritchie, Jonathan Warrick, Phillipe Alan Wernette