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Wildlife In Airport Environments: Chapter 4 Tactile And Auditory Repellents To Reduce Wildlife Hazards To Aircraft, Thomas W. Seamans, James A. Martin, Jerrold L. Belant

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wildlife within the airport environment are hazards to human safety. Lethal removal of targeted individuals reduces the immediate threat, but other approaches should be integrated into control programs to make them more effective and to help meet legal and ethical considerations (Dolbeer et al. 1995). When negative media attention, special interest groups, or calls for restrictive legislation influence public opinion, the resulting public pressure can preclude effective wildlife management and lead to subsequent population control problems (Torres et al. 1996, Coolahan and Snider 1998, Conover 2001). Nonlethal management activities to reduce wildlife use of airports may include habitat modification, exclusion …

Disease In A Dynamic Landscape: Host Behavior And Wildfire Reduce Amphibian Chytrid Infection, Blake R. Hossack, Winsor H. Lowe, Joy L. Ware, Paul Stephen Corn

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Disturbances are often expected to magnify effects of disease, but these effects may depend on the ecology, behavior, and life history of both hosts and pathogens. In many ecosystems, wildfire is the dominant natural disturbance and thus could directly or indirectly affect dynamics of many diseases. To determine how probability of infection by the aquatic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) varies relative to habitat use by individuals, wildfire, and host characteristics, we sampled 404 boreal toads (Anaxyrus boreas boreas) across Glacier National Park, Montana (USA). Bd causes chytridiomycosis, an emerging infectious disease linked with widespread amphibian declines, including the …

Wildlife In Airport Environments: Chapter 7 Population Management To Reduce The Risk Of Wildlife-Aircraft Collisions, Richard A. Dolbeer, Alan B. Franklin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Four basic control strategies mitigate the risks to aviation caused by wildlife at airports: (1) aircraft flight schedule modification (primarily at military airbases) and enhancement of aircraft visibility to avoid interactions with wildlife (e.g., Blackwell et al. 2009b, 2012); (2) habitat modification and elimination of food, water, and cover that attract wildlife (Cleary and Dolbeer 2005, Blackwell et al. 2009a; Chapters 5,8-10); (3) repellent and harassment techniques to disperse wildlife (Cleary and Dolbeer 2005; Chapters 2-4); and (4) wildlife population management (e.g., Dolbeer 1998). As discussed throughout this book, successful efforts to mitigate the risk of wildlife-aircraft strikes at airports …

Wildlife In Airport Environments: Chapter 9 Managing Airport Stormwater To Reduce Attraction To Wildlife, Bradley F. Blackwell, David Felstul, Thomas W. Seamans

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

An airport is a component of the landscape, contributing to and subject to local- and landscapelevel factors that affect wildlife populations and the hazards that these species pose to aviation (Blackwell et al. 2009, Martin et al. 2011). Water resources at and near an airport, in the form of both surface water and contained runoff, are recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as potential attractants to wildlife that pose hazards to aviation safety (FAA 2007). Surface water, including aboveground stormwater detention/retention facilities (see U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2006), can represent a substantial proportion of the area within siting criteria …

On The Halophytic Nature Of Mangroves, Ken W. Krauss, Marilyn C. Ball

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Scientists have discussed the halophytic nature of intertidal plants for decades, and have generally suggested that inherent differentiation of an obligate halophyte from a facultative halophyte relates strongly to whether the plant can survive in fresh water, and not much else. In this minireview, we provide additional insight to support the pervasive notion that mangroves as a group are truly facultative halophytes, and thus add discourse to the alternate view that mangroves have an obligate salinity requirement. Indeed, growth and physiological optima are realized at moderate salinity concentrations in mangroves, but we maintain the notion that current evidence suggests that …

Wildlife In Airport Environments: Chapter 8 Identification And Management Of Wildlife Food Resources At Airports, Travis L. Devault, Brian E. Washburn

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wildlife use airport habitats for a variety of reasons, including breeding, raising young, resting, taking refuge from predators, and locating sources of water. But the chief motivation for most individuals to encroach on airports is food. Depending on the specific habitat types present and habitat management strategies employed, airports can harbor large numbers of small mammals, insects, earthworms, and palatable vegetation that attract many species hazardous to aircraft. Often the best way to reduce populations of hazardous wildlife at airports is to determine which sources of food are being used, and then remove or modify those foods to make them …

Wildlife In Airport Environments Preventing Animal-Aircraft Collisions Through Science-Based Management, Travis L. Devault, Bradley F. Blackwell, Jerrold L. Belant

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

On 15 January 2009, the world learned --- in dramatic fashion --- that wildlife pose serious hazards to aircraft. On that day, US Airways Flight 1549, an Airbus 320 carrying 155 people, made an emergency landing in the Hudson River in New York City after ingesting Canada geese (Branta canadensis) into both engines at an altitude of ~2,900 feet (880 m) following takeoff from LaGuardia Airport (Marra et al. 2009, National Transportation Safety Board 2010). Historically, most people had never considered the extent of hazards posed to aircraft by birds and other wildlife. After all, how can birds, which …

The Malthusian–Darwinian Dynamic And The Trajectory Of Civilization, Jeffrey C. Nekola, Craig D. Allen, James H. Brown, Joseph R. Burger, Ana D. Davidson, Trevor S. Fristoe, Marcus J. Hamilton, Sean T. Hammond, Astrid Kodric-Brown, Norman Mercado-Silva, Jordan G. Okie

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Two interacting forces influence all populations: the Malthusian dynamic of exponential growth until resource limits are reached, and the Darwinian dynamic of innovation and adaptation to circumvent these limits through biological and/or cultural evolution. The specific manifestations of these forces in modern human society provide an important context for determining how humans can establish a sustainable relationship with the finite Earth.

Wildlife In Airport Environments: Chapter 5 Excluding Mammals From Airports, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Michael J. Lavelle, Thomas W. Seamans

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

To ensure aircraft safety, it is critical to exclude large mammal species such as deer (Odocoileus spp.), feral swine (Sus scrota), and coyotes (Canis latrans) from airport environments, as well as to consider thoroughly and carefully all available management methods. Airports are often located on or adjacent to undeveloped land that provides habitat for various species large enough to pose a direct hazard to aircraft. Unoccupied expanses of forage near runways provide deer with sufficient incentive to leave cover and occupy airport lands. Associated risk and tragic collisions have ranked deer as the most hazardous …

Wildlife In Airport Environments: Chapter 15 Conclusions And Future Directions, Jerrold L. Belant, Travis L. Devault, Bradley F. Blackwell

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Although the management of wildlife at airports has seen great progress in recent decades, wildlife collisions with aircraft continue to pose risks to human safety and economic losses to the aviation industry and military (Allan 2002, Dolbeer 2009). Our understanding of physiological and behavioral responses of wildlife to various types of repellents and harassment techniques has grown tremendously. Substantial inroads have been made in developing and optimizing exclusion devices, particularly for mammals. Research and management have increased considerably in recent years, allowing us to better understand aspects of resource use (e.g., cover, food) by wildlife and the spatial scales at …

Wildlife In Airport Environments: Appendix, Index And Back Cover, Michael L. Avery, Jerrold L. Belant, Kristin M. Biondi, Bradley F. Blackwell, Jonathon D. Cepek, Larry Clark, Tara J. Conkling, Scott R. Craven, Paul D. Curtis, Travis L. Devault, Richard A. Dolbeer, David Felstul, Esteban Fernandez-Juricic, Alan B. Franklin, Sidney A. Gauthreaux Jr., Michael J. Lavelle, James A. Martin, Rebecca Mihalco, Paige M. Schmidt, Thomas W. Seamans, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Brian E. Washburn

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

In 1990, the 190 member nations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) adopted, in Annex 14 to the Convention on Civil International Aviation, three recommended management practices regarding bird hazards to aviation. The recommended practices required that aviation authorities within each nation (1) assess the extent of the hazard posed by birds at and in the vicinity of airports certificated for passenger traffic, (2) take necessary action to decrease the number of birds, and (3) eliminate or prevent the establishment of any site in the vicinity of the airport that could attract birds and thereby present a danger to …

Historical Groundwater Trends In Northern New England And Relations With Streamflow And Climatic Variables, Robert W. Dudley, Glenn A. Hodgkins

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Water-level trends spanning 20, 30, 40, and 50 years were tested using month-end groundwater levels in 26, 12, 10, and 3 wells in northern New England (Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont), respectively. Groundwater levels for 77 wells were used in interannual correlations with meteorological and hydrologic variables related to groundwater. Trends in the contemporary groundwater record (20 and 30 years) indicate increases (rises) or no substantial change in groundwater levels in all months for most wells throughout northern New England. The highest percentage of increasing 20-year trends was in February through March, May through August, and October through November. Forty-year …

Projecting Future Grassland Productivity To Assess The Sustainability Of Potential Biofuel Feedstock Areas In The Greater Platte River Basin, Yingxin Gu, Bruce K. Wylie, Stephen P. Boyte, Khem P. Phuyal

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

This study projects future (e.g., 2050 and 2099) grassland productivities in the Greater Platte River Basin (GPRB) using ecosystem performance (EP, a surrogate for measuring ecosystem productivity) models and future climate projections. The EP models developed from a previous study were based on the satellite vegetation index, site geophysical and biophysical features, and weather and climate drivers. The future climate data used in this study were derived from the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate System Model 3.0 ‘SRES A1B’ (a ‘middle’ emissions path). The main objective of this study is to assess the future sustainability of the potential …

Operational Evapotranspiration Mapping Using Remote Sensing And Weather Datasets: A New Parameterization For The Sseb Approach, Gabriel B. Senay, Stefanie Bohms, Ramesh K. Singh, Prasanna H. Gowda, Naga M. Velpuri, Henok Alemu, James P. Verdin

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The increasing availability of multi-scale remotely sensed data and global weather datasets is allowing the estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) at multiple scales. We present a simple but robust method that uses remotely sensed thermal data and model-assimilated weather fields to produce ET for the contiguous United States (CONUS) at monthly and seasonal time scales. The method is based on the Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEB) model, which is now parameterized for operational applications, renamed as SSEBop. The innovative aspect of the SSEBop is that it uses predefined boundary conditions that are unique to each pixel for the “hot” and “cold” …

Effects Of Linking A Soil-Water-Balance Model With A Groundwater-Flow Model, Jennifer S. Stanton, Derek W. Ryter, Steven M. Peterson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

A previously published regional groundwater-flow model in north-central Nebraska was sequentially linked with the recently developed soil-water-balance (SWB) model to analyze effects to groundwater-flow model parameters and calibration results. The linked models provided a more detailed spatial and temporal distribution of simulated recharge based on hydrologic processes, improvement of simulated groundwater-level changes and base flows at specific sites in agricultural areas, and a physically based assessment of the relative magnitude of recharge for grassland, nonirrigated cropland, and irrigated cropland areas. Root-mean-squared (RMS) differences between the simulated and estimated or measured target values for the previously published model and linked models …

A New Genetic Linkage Map Of Barley (Hordeum Vulgare L.) Facilitates Genetic Dissection Of Height And Spike Length And Angle, Emir Islamovic, Donald E. Obert, Rebekah E. Oliver, Juliet M. Marshall, Kelci J. Miclaus, An Hang, Shiaoman Chao, Gerard R. Lazo, Stephen A. Harrison, Amir Ibrahim, Eric N. Jellen, Peter J. Maughan, Ryan H. Brown, Eric W. Jackson

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Plant height and spike length and angle are important agronomic traits in the production of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) due to strong correlations with lodging and disease. The objective of this study was to use QTL analysis to identify genetic regions associated with each trait in a recombinant inbred line (RIL) mapping population derived from a cross of Falcon by Azhul. Falcon is a spring six-row hulless feed barley with long spikes displaying obtuse angles, while Azhul is a spring dwarf, six-row hulless food barley with short spikes displaying acute angles. The population was genotyped using SNP, DArT and SSR …

Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever: History, Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, Clinical Syndrome And Genetic Diversity, Dennis A. Bente, Naomi L. Forrester, Douglas M. Watts, Alexander J. Mcauley, Chris A. Whitehouse, Mike Bray

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is the most important tick-borne viral disease of humans, causing sporadic cases or outbreaks of severe illness across a huge geographic area, from western China to the Middle East and southeastern Europe and throughout most of Africa. CCHFV is maintained in vertical and horizontal transmission cycles involving ixodid ticks and a variety of wild and domestic vertebrates, which do not show signs of illness. The virus circulates in a number of tick genera, but Hyalomma ticks are the principal source of human infection, probably because both immature and adult forms actively seek hosts for the blood …

Reproductive Health Of Yellow Perch Perca Flavescens In Selected Tributaries Of The Chesapeake Bay, Vicki S. Blazer, Alfred E. Pinkney, Jill A. Jenkins, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Steven Minkkinen, Rassa O. Draugelis-Dale, James H. Uphoff

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Reduced recruitment of yellow perch has been noted for a number of years in certain urbanized watersheds (South and Severn Rivers) of the Chesapeake Bay. Other rapidly developing watersheds such as Mattawoman Creek are more recently showing evidence of reduced recruitment of anadromous fishes. In this study, we used a battery of biomarkers to better document the reproductive health of adult yellow perch collected during spring spawning in 2007–2009. Perch were collected in the South and Severn Rivers, Mattawoman Creek and the less developed Choptank and Allen's Fresh watersheds for comparison. Gonadosomatic indices, plasma reproductive hormone concentrations, plasma vitellogenin concentrations …

Assessing Reproductive And Endocrine Parameters In Male Largescale Suckers (Catostomus Macrocheilus) Along A Contaminant Gradient In The Lower Columbia River, Usa, J.A. Jenkins, H.M. Olivier, R.O. Draugelis-Dale, B.E. Eilts, L. Torres, R. Patiño, E. Nilsen, S.L. Goodbred

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Persistent organochlorine pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p′-DDE), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are stable, bioaccumulative, and widely found in the environment, wildlife, and the human population. To explore the hypothesis that reproduction in male fish is associated with environmental exposures in the lower Columbia River (LCR), reproductive and endocrine parameters were studied inmale resident, non-anadromous largescale sucker (Catostomus macrocheilus) (LSS) inthe samehabitats as anadromous salmonids having conservation status. Testes, thyroid tissue and plasma collected in 2010 from Longview (LV), Columbia City (CC), and Skamania (SK; reference)were studied. Sperm morphologies and thyrocyte heights were …

Performance Of Human Fecal Anaerobe-Associated Pcr-Based Assays In A Multi-Laboratory Method Evaluation Study, Blythe A. Layton, Yiping Cao, Darcy L. Ebentier, Kaitlyn Hanley, Elisenda Balleste, Joao Brandao, Muruleedhara Byappanahalli, Reagan Converse, Andreas H. Farnleitner, Jennifer Gentry-Shields, Maribeth L. Gidley, Michele Gourmelon, Chang Soo Lee, Jiyoung Lee, Solen Lozach, Tania Madi, Wim G. Meijer, Rachel Noble, Lindsay Peed, Georg H. Reischer, Raquel Rodrigues, Joan B. Rose, Alexander Schriewer, Chris Sinigalliano, Sangeetha Srinivasan, Jill Stewart, Laurie C. Van De Werfhorst, Dan Wang, Richard Whitman, Stefan Wuertz, Jenny Jay, Patricia A. Holden, Alexandria B. Boehm, Orin Shanks, John F. Griffith

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

A number of PCR-based methods for detecting human fecal material in environmental waters have been developed over the past decade, but these methods have rarely received independent comparative testing in large multi-laboratory studies. Here, we evaluated ten of these methods (BacH, BacHum-UCD, Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (BtH), BsteriF1, gyrB, HF183 endpoint, HF183 SYBR, HF183 Taqman^®, HumM2, and Methanobrevibacter smithii nifH (Mnif)) using 64 blind samples prepared in one laboratory. The blind samples contained either one or two fecal sources from human, wastewater or non-human sources. The assay results were assessed for presence/absence of the human markers and also quantitatively while …

Human-Caused Mortality Influences Spatial Population Dynamics: Pumas In Landscapes With Varying Mortality Risks, Jesse R. Newby, L. Scott Mills, Toni K. Ruth, Daniel H. Pletscher, Michael S. Mitchell, Howard B. Quigley, Kerry M. Murphy, Rich Desimone

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

An understanding of how stressors affect dispersal attributes and the contribution of local populations to multi-population dynamics are of immediate value to basic and applied ecology. Puma (Puma concolor) populations are expected to be influenced by inter-population movements and susceptible to human induced source–sink dynamics. Using long-term datasets we quantified the contribution of two puma populations to operationally define them as sources or sinks. The puma population in the Northern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (NGYE) was largely insulated from human-induced mortality by Yellowstone National Park. Pumas in the western Montana Garnet Mountain system were exposed to greater human-induced mortality, …

Development Of An In Vitro Assay For Detecting Botulinum Neurotoxin Type E With Application To Avian Botulism In The Great Lakes, T.M. Piazza, D.S. Blehert, M.D. Samuel, F.M. Dunning, F.N. Zeytin, W.C. Tucker

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Purpose of study: Botulinum neurotoxin serotype E (BoNT/E) outbreaks in the Great Lakes region cause large annual avian mortality events with an estimated 17,000 bird deaths reported in 2007 alone. It is proposed that environmental conditions following blooms of the native algae Cladophora may promote growth of C. botulinum within Great Lakes sediments and subsequent BoNT/E production. BoNT/E may then be mobilized from the lake bed through food chains consisting of exotic species. We set out to develop a sensitive in vitro assay for diagnosis of avian BoNT intoxication and analysis of drivers that contribute to these outbreaks.

Methods …

A Causal Examination Of The Effects Of Confounding Factors On Multimetric Indices, Donald R. Schoolmaster Jr., James B. Grace, E. William Schweiger, Brian R. Mitchell, Glenn R. Guntenspergen

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The development of multimetric indices (MMIs) as a means of providing integrative measures of ecosystem condition is becoming widespread. An increasingly recognized problem for the interpretability of MMIs is controlling for the potentially confounding influences of environmental covariates. Most common approaches to handling covariates are based on simple notions of statistical control, leaving the causal implications of covariates and their adjustment unstated. In this paper, we use graphical models to examine some of the potential impacts of environmental covariates on the observed signals between human disturbance and potential response metrics. Using simulations based on various causal networks, we show how …

An Algorithmic And Information-Theoretic Approach To Multimetric Index Construction, Donald R. Schoolmaster Jr., James B. Grace, E. William Schweiger, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Brian R. Mitchell, Kathryn M. Miller, Amanda M. Little

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The use of multimetric indices (MMIs), such as the widely used index of biological integrity (IBI), to measure, track, summarize and infer the overall impact of human disturbance on biological communities has been steadily growing in recent years. Initially, MMIs were developed for aquatic communities using preselected biological metrics as indicators of system integrity. As interest in these bioassessment tools has grown, so have the types of biological systems to which they are applied. For many ecosystem types the appropriate biological metrics to use as measures of biological integrity are not known a priori. As a result, a variety of …

Dating North America’S Oldest Petroglyphs, Winnemucca Lake Subbasin, Nevada, L.V. Benson, E.M. Hattori, J. Southon, B. Aleck

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

On the west side of the Winnemucca Lake subbasin, Nevada, distinctive deeply carved meter-scale petroglyphs are closely spaced, forming panels on boulder-sized surfaces of a partially collapsed tufa mound. The large, complex motifs at this side are formed by deeply carved lines and cupules. A carbonate crust deposited between 10 200 and 9800 calibrated years B.P. (ka) coats petroglyphs at the base of the mound between elevations of 1202 and 1206 m. Petroglyphs above the carbonate crust are carved into a branching form of carbonate that dates to 14.8 ka. Radiocarbon dates on a multiple-layered algal tufa on the east …

Topographic Home Range Of Large Mammals: Is Planimetric Home Range Still A Viable Method?, W. David Walter, Justin W. Fischer, Teresa J. Frink, Scott E. Hygnstrom, Jonathan A. Jenks, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Topography influences movement trajectories, quality of forages used, and behavioral response of large herbivores to anthropogenic disturbances, but research is lacking on the influence of terrain complexity on size of home range. Size of home range usually is based on planimetric area and therefore rarely accounts for the true surface area traversed by an animal. We conducted radiotelemetry on bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and white-tailed deer (O. virginianus) equipped with VHF collars at three sites from 2002 to 2006 to document size of home range in areas that ranged from 400 …

National Valuation Of Monarch Butterflies Indicates An Untapped Potential For Incentive-Based Conservation, Jay E. Diffendorfer, John B. Loomis, Leslie Ries, Karen Oberhauser, Laura Lopez-Hoffman, Darius Semmens, Brice Semmens, Bruce Butterfield, Ken Bagstad, Josh Goldstein, Ruscena Wiederholt, Brady Mattson, Wayne E. Thogmartin

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The annual migration of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) has high cultural value and recent surveys indicate monarch populations are declining. Protecting migratory species is complex because they cross international borders and depend on multiple regions. Understanding how much, and where, humans place value on migratory species can facilitate market-based conservation approaches. We performed a contingent valuation study of monarchs to understand the potential for such approaches to fund monarch conservation. The survey asked U.S. respondents about the money they would spend, or have spent, growing monarch-friendly plants, and the amount they would donate to monarch conservation organizations. Combining planting payments …

Extending Airborne Electromagnetic Surveys For Regional Active Layer And Permafrost Mapping With Remote Sensing And Ancillary Data, Yukon Flats Ecoregion, Central Alaska, Neal J. Pastick, M. Torre Jorgenson, Bruce K. Wylie, Burke J. Minsley, Lei Ji, Michelle A. Walvoord, Bruce D. Smith, Jared D. Abraham, Joshua R. Rose

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Machine-learning regression tree models were used to extrapolate airborne electromagnetic resistivity data collected along flight lines in the Yukon Flats Ecoregion, central Alaska, for regional mapping of permafrost. This method of extrapolation (r = 0.86) used subsurface resistivity, Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) at-sensor reflectance, thermal, TM-derived spectral indices, digital elevation models and other relevant spatial data to estimate near-surface (0–2.6-m depth) resistivity at 30-m resolution. A piecewise regression model (r = 0.82) and a presence/absence decision tree classification (accuracy of 87%) were used to estimate active-layer thickness (ALT) (< 101 cm) and the probability of near-surface (up to 123-cm depth) permafrost occurrence from field data, modelled near-surface (0–2.6m) resistivity, and other relevant remote sensing and map data. At site scale, the predicted ALTs were similar to those previously observed for different vegetation types. At the landscape scale, the predicted ALTs tended to be thinner on higher-elevation loess deposits than on low-lying alluvial and sand sheet deposits of the Yukon Flats. The ALT and permafrost maps provide a baseline for future permafrost monitoring, serve as inputs for modelling hydrological and carbon cycles at local to regional scales, and offer insight into the ALT response to fire and thaw processes. Published 2013. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

A Review Of Environmental Impacts Of Salts From Produced Waters On Aquatic Resources, Aida M. Farag, David D. Harper

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Salts are frequently amajor constituent ofwastewaters produced during oil and gas production. These produced waters or brines must be treated and/or disposed and provide a daily challenge for operators and resourcemanagers. Some elements of salts are regulated with water quality criteria established for the protection of aquatic wildlife, e.g. chloride (Cl⁻), which has an acute standard of 860 mg/L and a chronic standard of 230 mg/L. However, data for establishing such standards has only recently been studied for other components of produced water, such as bicarbonate (HCO3 ⁻), which has acute median lethal concentrations (LC50s) ranging from …

Loess Origin, Transport, And Deposition Over The Past 10,000 Years, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska, Daniel R. Muhs, James R. Budahn, John P. Mcgeehin, E. Arthur Bettis Iii, Gary Skipp, James B. Paces, Elisabeth A. Wheeler

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Contemporary glaciogenic dust has not received much attention, because most research has been on glaciogenic dust of the last glacial period or non-glaciogenic dust of the present interglacial period. Nevertheless, dust from modern glaciogenic sources may be important for Fe inputs to primary producers in the ocean. Adjacent to the subarctic Pacific Ocean, we studied a loess section near Chitina, Alaska along the Copper River in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, where dust has been accumulating over the past ~10,000 years. Mass accumulation rates for the fine-grained (<20 >µm) fraction of this loess section are among the highest reported for the …