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At least 307 records · Page 17Linked to original sources
USGS2008

Algal Attributes: An Autecological Classification of Algal Taxa Collected by the National Water-Quality Assessment Program

Algae are excellent indicators of water-quality conditions, notably nutrient and organic enrichment, and also are indicators of major ion, dissolved oxygen, and pH concentrations and stream microhabitat conditions. The autecology, or physiological optima and tolerance, of algal species for various water-quality contaminants and conditions is relatively well understood for certain groups of freshwater algae, notably diatoms. However, applications of autecological information for water-quality assessments have been limited because of challenges associated with compiling autecological literature from disparate sources, tracking name changes for a large number of algal species, and creating an autecological data base from which algal-indicator metrics can be calculated. A comprehensive summary of algal autecological attributes for North American streams and rivers does not exist. This report describes a large, digital data file containing 28,182 records for 5,939 algal taxa, generally species or variety, collected by the U.S. Geological Survey?s National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. The data file includes 37 algal attributes classified by over 100 algal-indicator codes or metrics that can be calculated easily with readily available software. Algal attributes include qualitative classifications based on European and North American autecological literature, and semi-quantitative, weighted-average regression approaches for estimating optima using regional and national NAWQA data. Applications of algal metrics in water-quality assessments are discussed and national quartile distributions of metric scores are shown for selected indicator metrics.

Data Series↗
USGS2023

AIMS for wildlife: Developing an automated interactive monitoring system to integrate real-time movement and environmental data for true adaptive management

To effectively manage species and habitats at multiple scales, population and land managers require rapid information on wildlife use of managed areas and responses to landscape conditions and management actions. GPS tracking studies of wildlife are particularly informative to species ecology, habitat use, and conservation. Combining GPS data with administrative data and a diverse suite of remotely sensed, geo-referenced environmental (e.g., climatic) data, would more comprehensively inform how animals interact with and utilize habitats and ecosystems and our goal was to create a conceptual model for a system that would accomplish this – the ‘Automated Interactive Monitoring System (AIMS) for Wildlife’. Our objective for this study was to develop a Customized Wildlife Report (CWR) - the first AIMS for Wildlife deliverable product. CWRs collate and summarize our 8-year GPS tracking dataset of ∼11 million locations from 1338 individual (16 species) avifauna and make actionable, real-time data on animal movements and trends in a specific area of interest available to managers and stakeholders for rapid application in day-to-day management. The CWR exemplar presented in this paper was developed to address needs identified by habitat managers of Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge and illustrates the highly specific, information offered and how it contributes to assessing the efficacy of conservation actions while allowing for near real-time adaptive management. The report can be easily customized for any of the thousands of wildlife refuges or regional areas of interest in the United States, emphasizing the broad application of an animal movement data stream. Utilizing diverse, extensive telemetry data streams through scientific collaboration can aid managers and conservation stakeholders with short and long-term research and conservation planning and help address a cadre of issues from local-scale habitat management to improving the understanding of landscape level impacts like drought, wildfire, and climate change on wildlife populations.

Journal of Environmental Management↗
USGS2024

Grassland Effectiveness Monitoring (GEM): A tiered approach for habitat treatment assessment across private lands incentive programs

Introduction The decline of North American grasslands is a topic of increasing interest as agencies and organizations work to address subsequent declines in wildlife species, including grassland birds (Rosenberg et al. 2019), pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) (Gedir et al. 2015), and other grassland-dependent taxa. In response to grassland habitat loss, conservation programs and policies have been developed to provide biologists and landowners mechanisms to restore grassland habitat on private lands. These range from federal programs such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) Partners for Fish and Wildlife program (PFW) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) Environmental Quality Incentive Program, state programs such as Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Pastures for Upland Birds, and partnership-based programs such as the Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture’s Grassland Restoration Incentive Program (GRIP). When managing and restoring grassland habitat, these programs typically utilize the same set of practices: prescribed grazing, prescribed fire, herbicide, brush management, and range planting. To restore grasslands at scale, large sums of funding have been invested into these programs. For example, approximately $1 million is spent by PFW in Texas annually (D. Wilhelm, USFWS, personal communication). However, it is rare for these conservation programs to have associated monitoring efforts that are consistently used to assess the effectiveness of the aforementioned practices in achieving program and project objectives. As such, it is difficult to communicate to funders and the public whether these conservation programs are successfully addressing grassland decline. Similar objectives and practices across programs, however, provide a unique opportunity for developing an innovative monitoring methodology that focuses on providing a collaborative solution to this dilemma. Our objective is to develop a grassland monitoring program that can be used across agencies, organizations, and conservation programs to assess the effectiveness of practices and programs in restoring healthy grasslands. In addition, we seek to develop a program that maintains consistency to allow for regional to national-scale reporting while also allowing flexibility for achieving local and partner monitoring objectives. Our vision is for this program to be used across North American grasslands to improve our ability to address the questions: “Is it actually working?” and “How can we improve habitat delivery?”

Conference Paper↗
USGS2000

Water quality in south-central Texas, Texas, 1996–98

This report summarizes major findings about water quality in south-central Texas that emerged from an assessment conducted between 1996 and 1998 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. Water quality is discussed in terms of local and regional issues and compared to conditions found in all 36 NAWQA study areas, called Study Units, assessed to date. Findings also are explained in the context of selected national benchmarks, such as those for drinking-water quality and the protection of aquatic organisms. The NAWQA Program was not intended to assess the quality of the Nation’s drinking water, such as by monitoring water from household taps. Rather, the assessments focus on the quality of the resource itself, thereby complementing many ongoing Federal, State, and local drinking-water monitoring programs. The comparisons made in this report to drinking-water standards and guidelines are only in the context of the available untreated resource. Finally, this report includes information about the status of aquatic communities and the condition of instream habitats as elements of a complete water-quality assessment. Many topics covered in this report reflect the concerns of officials of State and Federal agencies, water-resource managers, and members of stakeholder groups who provided advice and input during the assessment. Residents who wish to know more about water quality in the areas where they live will find this report informative as well.

Texas↗
USGS2013

High-resolution seismic-reflection and marine-magnetic data from offshore central California--San Gregorio to Point Sur

The U.S. Geological Survey collected high-resolution seismic-reflection data on four surveys (S-N1-09-MB, S-15-10-NC, S-06-11-MB, and S-04-12-MB) and marine-magnetic data on one survey (S-06-11-MB) between 2009 and 2012, offshore of central California between San Gregorio and Point Sur. This work was supported in part by the California Seafloor Mapping Program. The survey areas span about 120 km of California's coast (including Monterey Bay). Most data were collected aboard the U.S. Geological Survey R/V Parke Snavely. Cumulatively, approximately 1,410 km of single-channel seismic-reflection data were acquired, mainly using a SIG 2mille minisparker. About 44 km of data were collected simultaneously using an EdgeTech Chirp 512. Subbottom acoustic penetration spanned tens to several hundreds of meters, variable by location. Marine magnetic data were collected on approximately 460 km of track lines (mainly in southern Monterey Bay) using a Geometrics G882 cesium-vapor marine magnetometer. This report includes maps and navigation files of the surveyed transects, linked to Google Earth™ software, as well as digital data files showing images of each transect in SEG-Y and JPEG formats. The images of bedrock, sediment deposits, and tectonic structure provide geologic information that is essential to hazard assessment, regional sediment management, and coastal and marine spatial planning at Federal, State and local levels, as well as to future research on the geomorphic, sedimentary, tectonic, and climatic record of central California.

California↗
USGS1998

Water quality in the Red River of the North Basin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, 1992-95

This report is intended to summarize major findings that emerged between 1992 and 1995 from the water-quality assessment of the River River of the North basin study unit and to relate these findings to water-quality issues of regional and national concern. The information in primarily intended for those who are involved in water-resource management. Yet the information contained here may also interest those who simply wish to know more about the quality of water in the rivers and aquifers in the area where they live.

Circular↗
USGS2013

National assessment of shoreline change: historical shoreline change along the Pacific Northwest coast

Beach erosion is a chronic problem along most open ocean shores of the United States. As coastal populations continue to increase and infrastructure is threatened by erosion, there is increased demand for accurate information regarding past and present trends and rates of shoreline movement. There is also a need for a comprehensive analysis of shoreline movement that is consistent from one coastal region to another. To meet these national needs, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is conducting an analysis of historical shoreline changes along the open-ocean sandy shores of the conterminous United States and parts of Hawaii, Alaska, and the Great Lakes. One purpose of this work is to develop standard, repeatable methods for mapping and analyzing shoreline movement so that periodic, systematic, and internally consistent updates regarding coastal erosion and land loss can be made nationally. In the case of the analysis of shoreline change in the Pacific Northwest (PNW), the shoreline is the interpreted boundary between the ocean water surface and the sandy beach. This report on the PNW coasts of Oregon and Washington is the seventh in a series of regionally focused reports on historical shoreline change. Previous investigations include analyses and descriptive reports of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (Morton and others, 2004), the southeastern Atlantic (Morton and Miller, 2005), the sandy shorelines (Hapke and others, 2006) and coastal cliffs (Hapke and Reid, 2007) of California, the New England and mid-Atlantic coasts (Hapke and others, 2011), and parts of the Hawaii coast (Fletcher and others, 2012). Like the earlier reports in this series, this report summarizes the methods of analysis, interprets the results of the analysis, provides explanations regarding long- and short-term trends and rates of shoreline change, and describes how different coastal communities are responding to coastal erosion. This report differs from the early USGS reports in the series in that those shoreline change analyses incorporated only four total shorelines to represent specific time periods. This assessment of the PNW incorporates all available shorelines that meet minimum quality standards for resolution and positional accuracy. Shoreline change evaluations are based on a comparison of historical shoreline positions digitized from maps or aerial photographic data sources with recent shorelines, at least one of which is derived from lidar surveys. The historical shorelines cover a variety of time periods ranging from the 1800s through the 1980s, whereas the lidar shoreline is from 2002. Long-term rates of change are calculated using all available shoreline data and short-term rates of change are calculated using the lidar shoreline and the historical shoreline that will produce an assessment for a 15- to 35-year period. The rates of change presented in this report represent conditions up to the date of only the most recent shoreline data and therefore are not intended for predicting future shoreline positions or rates of change. The PNW coast was subdivided into eight analysis regions for the purpose of graphically reporting regional trends in shoreline change rates. The average rate of long-term shoreline change for the entire PNW coast was 0.9 meter per year (m/yr) of progradation with an uncertainty of 0.07 m/yr. This rate is based on 8,823 individual transects, of which 36 percent was determined to be eroding. Long-term shoreline change was generally more progradational in Washington than in Oregon. This is primarily due to the influence of the Columbia River and human perturbations to the natural system, particularly the construction of jetties at both the mouth of the Columbia River and at Grays Harbor, Washington. The majority of the beaches in southwestern Washington have responded to these large-scale engineered structures by experiencing dramatic beach progradation during the past century. Although these beaches are still responding to the human effects, in several locations beaches that had been rapidly prograding are now either prograding at a slower rate or eroding. The average rate of short-term shoreline change in the PNW was also progradational at a rate of 0.9 m/yr with an uncertainty of 0.03 m/yr. This rate is based on 9,087 individual transects, of which 44 percent was determined to be eroding. Similar to the results of the long-term shoreline change analysis, the shorelines in Washington were typically more progradational than those in Oregon in the short term. However, many stretches of coast in Oregon are either less accretional, changed from accretional to erosional, or more erosional when comparing the long- and short-term rate calculations. In the long and short term, there are significantly different historical shoreline change trends for beaches deriving their modern sediments from the Columbia River in southwestern Washington and northwestern Oregon, and beaches elsewhere in the PNW. The majority of shorelines in Oregon and in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula are not influenced by the human effects to the Columbia River littoral cell and typically have not experienced the human-induced century-scale trends apparent in southwestern Washington and northwestern Oregon. An increase in erosion hazards in much of Oregon may be related to the effects of sea-level rise and increasing storm wave heights. Of importance, particularly in the short term, is the alongshore variability in land uplift rates due to tectonics, which results in an alongshore varying rate of relative sea level rise that appears to at least partially control the regional variability in short-term shoreline change rates. Other climate related processes, such as the occurrence of major El Niño events, also significantly affect the shoreline changes in the region. Major El Niño events elevate monthly mean sea levels by tens of centimeters throughout the winter and produce a shift in the storm tracks, resulting in alongshore redistributions in sand volumes on the beaches, leading to hotspot beach erosion and property losses north of headlands and tidal inlets to bays and estuaries. There are limited modern-day sources of sand to Oregon’s beaches, with much of the sand being relict in having arrived thousands of years ago at a time of lowered sea levels when headlands did not prevent the alongshore movement of the beach sediments, the result being that many beaches today are deficient in sand volumes and therefore do not provide sufficient buffer protection to backshore properties during winter storms.

Oregon;Washington↗
USGS2013

Brookian sequence well log correlation sections and occurrence of gas hydrates, north-central North Slope, Alaska

Gas hydrates are naturally occurring crystalline, ice-like substances that consist of natural gas molecules trapped in a solid-water lattice. Because of the compact nature of their structure, hydrates can effectively store large volumes of gas and, consequently, have been identified as a potential unconventional energy source. First recognized to exist geologically in the 1960s, significant accumulations of gas hydrate have been found throughout the world. Gas hydrate occurrence is limited to environments such as permafrost regions and subsea sediments because of the pressure and temperature conditions required for their formation and stability. Permafrost-associated gas hydrate accumulations have been discovered in many regions of the Arctic, including Russia, Canada, and the North Slope of Alaska. Gas hydrate research has a long history in northern Alaska. This research includes the drilling, coring, and well log evaluation of two gas hydrate stratigraphic test wells and two resource assessments of gas hydrates on the Alaska North Slope. Building upon these previous investigations, this report provides a summary of the pertinent well log, gas hydrate, and stratigraphic data for key wells related to gas hydrate occurrence in the north-central North Slope. The data are presented in nine well log correlation sections with 122 selected wells to provide a regional context for gas hydrate accumulations and the relation of the accumulations to key stratigraphic horizons and to the base of the ice-bearing permafrost. Also included is a well log database that lists the location, available well logs, depths, and other pertinent information for each of the wells on the correlation section.

Alaska↗
USGS2016

High-resolution seismic-reflection data from offshore northern California — Bolinas to Sea Ranch

The U.S. Geological Survey collected high-resolution seismic-reflection data in September 2009, on survey S-8-09-NC, offshore of northern California between Bolinas and Sea Ranch. The survey area spans about 125 km of California’s coast and extends around Point Reyes. Data were collected aboard the U.S. Geological Survey R/V Parke Snavely . Cumulatively, ~1,150 km of seismic-reflection data were acquired using a SIG 2mille minisparker. Subbottom acoustic depth of penetration spanned tens to several hundred meters and varied by location and underlying sediments and rock types. This report includes maps and a navigation file of the surveyed transects, utilizing Google Earth™ software, as well as digital data files showing images of each transect in SEG-Y and JPEG formats. The images of bedrock, sediment deposits, and tectonic structure provide geologic information that is essential to hazard assessment, regional sediment management, and coastal and marine spatial planning at Federal, State and local levels. This information is also valuable for future research on the geomorphic, sedimentary, tectonic, and climatic record of central California.

California↗
USGS1999

Land and federal mineral ownership coverage for southern Wyoming

This Arc/Info coverage contains land status and Federal mineral ownership for approximately 37,800 square miles in southern Wyoming. The polygon coverage (which is also provided here as a shapefile) contains two attributes of ownership information for each polygon. One attribute indicates where the surface is State owned, privately owned, or, if Federally owned, which Federal agency manages the land surface. The other attribute indicates which minerals, if any, are owned by the Federal govenment. This coverage is based on land status and Federal mineral ownership data compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Wyoming State Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at a scale of 1:24,000. This coverage was compiled primarily to serve the USGS National Oil and Gas Resource Assessment and National Coal Resource Assessment Projects in the Northern Rocky Mountains/Great Plains Region.

Wyoming↗
USGS2021

Approaches for assessing long-term annual yields of highway and urban runoff in selected areas of California with the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM)

The California Department of Transportation, commonly known as CalTrans, and other municipal separate storm sewer system permittees in California as well as other State departments of transportation nationwide need information about potential loads and yields (loads per unit area) of constituents of concern in stormwater runoff and discharges from stormwater best management practices (BMPs). Although its National Pollution Discharge Elimination System stormwater permit is focused on areas subject to total maximum daily load (TMDL) regulations, CalTrans builds and maintains BMPs to minimize the adverse effects of roadway runoff on receiving waters throughout the State. This report describes approaches used by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with CalTrans for using the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM) to assess long-term annual yields of highway and urban runoff in selected areas of California. In this study, a series of regional and local yields were simulated to provide statewide planning-level estimates and more refined TMDL-specific yield values. SELDM was used to analyze 368 State roadway and urban runoff yields for 53 runoff quality constituents. The analyses included 222 random-seed analyses, 60 regional State roadway-runoff analyses, 24 regional urban roadway-runoff analyses, and 62 focused TMDL-area analyses. This report describes approaches and statistics used to analyze available hydrologic and runoff quality data in all analyses. Results for all analyses are provided in the model archive, but only a selected subset of results are presented as examples in this report. State roadway runoff, urban runoff, and BMP discharge yields for total suspended solids, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and total zinc were selected as examples because they are widespread constituents of concern with substantial amounts of State roadway and urban runoff monitoring data. In this report, a hypothetical basin was specified by using available geographic information to demonstrate use of the State roadway and urban runoff yields to estimate long-term annual stormwater loads from developed areas. Application of these yields to the hypothetical basin indicates that although State-roadway yields may be higher than urban-runoff yields for some constituents, State-roadway loads may be a small proportion of total stormwater loads because State roadways themselves are a small fraction of the total impervious area in such basins. Although application of results from this study may have considerable uncertainty for any particular stormwater outfall, the study does provide robust estimates to support basin-scale runoff-load analyses in California. These analyses also provide estimates for the 12 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency level III ecoregions that are completely or partially within the boundaries of the State of California.

California↗
USGS2011

Selected approaches to estimate water-budget components of the High Plains, 1940 through 1949 and 2000 through 2009

The High Plains aquifer, underlying almost 112 million acres in the central United States, is one of the largest aquifers in the Nation. It is the primary water supply for drinking water, irrigation, animal production, and industry in the region. Expansion of irrigated agriculture throughout the past 60 years has helped make the High Plains one of the most productive agricultural regions in the Nation. Extensive withdrawals of groundwater for irrigation have caused water-level declines in many parts of the aquifer and increased concerns about the long-term sustainability of the aquifer. Quantification of water-budget components is a prerequisite for effective water-resources management. Components analyzed as part of this study were precipitation, evapotranspiration, recharge, surface runoff, groundwater discharge to streams, groundwater fluxes to and from adjacent geologic units, irrigation, and groundwater in storage. These components were assessed for 1940 through 1949 (representing conditions prior to substantial groundwater development and referred to as "pregroundwater development" throughout this report) and 2000 through 2009. Because no single method can perfectly quantify the magnitude of any part of a water budget at a regional scale, results from several methods and previously published work were compiled and compared for this study when feasible. Results varied among the several methods applied, as indicated by the range of average annual volumes given for each component listed in the following paragraphs. Precipitation was derived from three sources: the Parameter-Elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model, data developed using Next Generation Weather Radar and measured precipitation from weather stations by the Office of Hydrologic Development at the National Weather Service for the Sacramento-Soil Moisture Accounting model, and precipitation measured at weather stations and spatially distributed using an inverse-distance-weighted interpolation method. Precipitation estimates using these sources, as a 10-year average annual total volume for the High Plains, ranged from 192 to 199 million acre-feet (acre-ft) for 1940 through 1949 and from 185 to 199 million acre-ft for 2000 through 2009. Evapotranspiration was obtained from three sources: the National Weather Service Sacramento-Soil Moisture Accounting model, the Simplified-Surface-Energy-Balance model using remotely sensed data, and the Soil-Water-Balance model. Average annual total evapotranspiration estimated using these sources was 148 million acre-ft for 1940 through 1949 and ranged from 154 to 193 million acre-ft for 2000 through 2009. The maximum amount of shallow groundwater lost to evapotranspiration was approximated for areas where the water table was within 5 feet of land surface. The average annual total volume of evapotranspiration from shallow groundwater was 9.0 million acre-ft for 1940 through 1949 and ranged from 9.6 to 12.6 million acre-ft for 2000 through 2009. Recharge was estimated using two soil-water-balance models as well as previously published studies for various locations across the High Plains region. Average annual total recharge ranged from 8.3 to 13.2 million acre-ft for 1940 through 1949 and from 15.9 to 35.0 million acre-ft for 2000 through 2009. Surface runoff and groundwater discharge to streams were determined using discharge records from streamflow-gaging stations near the edges of the High Plains and the Base-Flow Index program. For 1940 through 1949, the average annual net surface runoff leaving the High Plains was 1.9 million acre-ft, and the net loss from the High Plains aquifer by groundwater discharge to streams was 3.1 million acre-ft. For 2000 through 2009, the average annual net surface runoff leaving the High Plains region was 1.3 million acre-ft and the net loss by groundwater discharge to streams was 3.9 million acre-ft. For 2000 through 2009, the average annual total estimated groundwater pumpage volume from two soil-water-balance models ranged from 8.7 to 16.2 million acre-ft. Average annual irrigation application rates for the High Plains ranged from 8.4 to 16.2 inches per year. The USGS Water-Use Program published estimated total annual pumpage from the High Plains aquifer for 2000 and 2005. Those volumes were greater than those estimated from the two soil-water-balance models. Total groundwater in storage in the High Plains aquifer was estimated as 3,173 million acre-ft prior to groundwater development and 2,907 million acre-ft in 2007. The average annual decrease of groundwater in storage between 2000 and 2007 was 10 million acre-ft per year.

High Plains Aquifer↗
USGS2007

Strategic Plan for the North American Breeding Bird Survey: 2006-2010

Executive Summary The mission of the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) is to provide scientifically credible measures of the status and trends of North American bird populations at continental and regional scales to inform biologically sound conservation and management actions. Determining population trends, relative abundance, and distributions of North American avifauna is critical for identifying conservation priorities, determining appropriate conservation actions, and evaluating those actions. The BBS program, jointly coordinated by the U.S. Geological Survey and Environment Canada’s Canadian Wildlife Service, provides the U.S. and Canadian Federal governments, state and provincial agencies, other conservation practitioners, and the general public with science-based avian population trend estimates and other information for regional and national species’ population assessments. Despite the demonstrated value of the BBS for furthering avian conservation across North America, its importance is often underappreciated, and it is underfunded compared with many other government-supported programs that report on status of the environment. Today, BBS resources, adjusted for inflation, are below the amount allocated in the 1970s and are still only sufficient to support two biologists. Yet the number of routes, participants, data, and data requests has quadrupled. Data and information management and delivery requirements and security concerns, non-existent in 1966, impose further demands on BBS resources. In addition, the Mexican expansion of the BBS offers new hope for a truly continental approach to avian conservation, but also brings additional challenges. Meeting the goals of this plan will take cooperation among myriad stakeholders; yet, even with collaboration, most objectives of this plan will be unattainable if BBS program support is not increased. The BBS developed this strategic plan to help set priorities and identify resources required for the program to continue to meet the evolving needs of the conservation community for information on bird population change. By setting clear goals, strategies, and measures of success, this plan provides a cohesive framework and vision for maintenance and development of the BBS. The plan identifies two major goals for the BBS, with a number of strategies and objectives to achieve these goals. Over the next 5 years, progress made in addressing each long-term goal and its associated 5-year strategies and objectives will gage the plan’s success. Specific actions, projected outcomes, and measures of success related to accomplishing these are outlined in Table 1, with a timeline in Table 2. The two main goals for the program, with a summary of the strategies to achieve them, are: Goal 1: Collect scientifically credible measures of the status and trends of North American bird populations at continental and regional scales. The North American Breeding Bird Survey will continue to support North American natural resource conservation through the collection of scientifically credible measures of the status and trends of continental bird populations. While doing this, the BBS will work to improve the science behind the program to better meet its mission and the changing needs of the avian conservation community. In partnership with collaborators, the BBS will address detection probability bias and habitat bias, improve analytical methods, and more fully assess and account for observer quality. Moreover, the BBS will improve the quality and breadth of avian population data through strategic increases in route density and the establishment of a Mexican BBS program. Goal 2: Ensure BBS data and analytical results are widely available and easily accessible for use by the avian conservation and management communities. At the heart of the BBS lies a four-million-record database containing more than 40 years of data on more than 600 bird species. These data are of no value if not well maintained, appropriately analyzed, and widely and easily accessible. The USGS has greatly improved data management and accessibility in recent years. Trend estimates were first made available via the Internet in the mid-1990s, followed closely by the raw data with baseline metadata and standard operating procedures. Nevertheless, numerous enhancements to data management and the usability of BBS results will greatly improve the ability of the BBS to serve avian conservation goals. The BBS needs to ensure that BBS data and results presented on the web site use the best data-management practices and statistical methods, with adequate documentation for users to understand them and any differences between different trend estimates. Moreover, the BBS needs to increase communication with BBS partners and stakeholders to ensure that it continues to meet the avian population status and trends needs of the conservation community and to encourage the development of new products. Working with collaborators, the BBS will develop tools for integrating environmental parameters like habitat change into the analyses, and for integrating BBS data with other avian survey results. In addition, the BBS will continue to improve data and database management through the incorporation of additional data and data fields, such as georeferenced stop locations and more complete metadata for the raw data and results, thus enhancing the uses that can be made of the data.

Circular↗
USGS2012

Future scenarios of land-use and land-cover change in the United States--the Marine West Coast Forests Ecoregion

Detecting, quantifying, and projecting historical and future changes in land use and land cover (LULC) has emerged as a core research area for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Changes in LULC are important drivers of changes to biogeochemical cycles, the exchange of energy between the Earth’s surface and atmosphere, biodiversity, water quality, and climate change. To quantify the rates of recent historical LULC change, the USGS Land Cover Trends project recently completed a unique ecoregion-based assessment of late 20th century LULC change for the western United States. To characterize present LULC, the USGS and partners have created the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) for the years 1992, 2001, and 2006. Both Land Cover Trends and NLCD projects continue to evolve in an effort to better characterize historical and present LULC conditions and are the foundation of the data presented in this report. Projecting future changes in LULC requires an understanding of the rates and patterns of change, the major driving forces, and the socioeconomic and biophysical determinants and capacities of regions. The data presented in this report is the result of an effort by USGS scientists to downscale the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) to ecoregions of the conterminous United States as part of the USGS Biological Carbon Sequestration Assessment. The USGS biological carbon assessment was mandated by Section 712 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. As part of the legislative mandate, the USGS is required to publish a methodology describing, in detail, the approach to be used for the assessment. The development of future LULC scenarios is described in chapter 3.2 and appendix A. Spatial modeling is described in chapter 3.3.2 and appendix B and in Sohl and others (2011). In this report, we briefly summarize the major components and methods used to downscale IPCC-SRES scenarios to ecoregions of the conterminous United States, followed by a description of the Marine West Coast Forests Ecoregion, and lastly a description of the data being published as part of this report.

California;Oregon;Washington↗
USGS2021

Simulated atmospheric response to four projected land-use land-cover change scenarios for 2050 in the north-central United States

Land-use land-cover change (LULCC) has become an important topic of research for the central United States because of the extensive conversion of the natural prairie into agricultural land, especially in the northern Great Plains. As a result, shifts in the natural climate (minimum/maximum temperature, precipitation, etc.) across the north-central United States have been observed, as noted within the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) report. Thus, it is necessary to understand how further LULCC will affect the near-surface atmosphere, the lower troposphere, and the planetary boundary layer (PBL) atmosphere over this region. The goal of this work was to investigate the utility of a new future land-use land-cover (LULC) dataset within the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) modeling system. The present study utilizes a modeled future land-use dataset developed by the Forecasting Scenarios of Land-Use Change (FORE-SCE) model to investigate the influence of future (2050) land use on a simulated PBL development within the WRF Model. Three primary areas of LULCC were identified within the FORE-SCE future LULC dataset across Nebraska and South Dakota. Variations in LULC between the 2005 LULC control simulation and four FORE-SCE simulations affected near-surface temperature (0.5°–1°C) and specific humidity (0.3–0.5 g kg −1 ). The differences noted in the temperature and moisture fields affected the development of the simulated PBL, leading to variations in PBL height and convective available potential energy. Overall, utilizing the FORE-SCE dataset within WRF produced notable differences relative to the control simulation over areas of LULCC represented in the FORE-SCE dataset.

Nebraska, South Dakota↗
USGS2004

Water Quality in the Delaware River Basin, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Delaware, 1998-2001

This report contains the major findings of a 1998-2001 assessment of water quality in the Delaware River Basin. It is one of a series of reports by the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program that present major findings in 51 major river basins and aquifer systems across the Nation. In these reports, water quality is discussed in terms of local, State, and regional issues. Conditions in a particular basin or aquifer system are compared to conditions found elsewhere and to selected national benchmarks, such as those for drinking-water quality and the protection of aquatic organisms. This report is intended for individuals working with water-resource issues in Federal, State, or local agencies, universities, public interest groups, or in the private sector. The information will be useful in addressing a number of current issues, such as the effects of agricultural and urban land use on water quality, human health, drinking water, source-water protection, hypoxia and excessive growth of algae and plants, pesticide registration, and monitoring and sampling strategies. This report is also for individuals who wish to know more about the quality of streams and ground water in areas near where they live, and how that quality compares to the quality of water in other areas across the Nation. The water-quality conditions in the Delaware River Basin summarized in this report are discussed in detail in other reports that can be accessed from https://www.usgs.gov/centers/new-jersey-water-science-center/science/delaware-river-basin-delr-nawqa-study-unit . Detailed technical information, data and analyses, collection and analytical methodology, models, graphs, and maps that support the findings presented in this report, in addition to reports in this series from other basins, can be accessed from the national NAWQA Web site ( http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa ).

Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania↗
USGS2004

Water quality in the Great and Little Miami River Basins, Ohio and Indiana, 1999-2001

This report contains the major findings of a 1999?2001 assessment of water quality in the Great and Little Miami River Basins. It is one of a series of reports by the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program that present major findings in 51 major river basins and aquifer systems across the Nation. In these reports, water quality is discussed in terms of local, State, and regional issues. Conditions in a particular basin or aquifer system are compared to conditions found elsewhere and to selected national benchmarks, such as those for drinking-water quality and the protection of aquatic organisms. This report is intended for individuals working with water-resource issues in Federal, State, or local agencies, universities, public interest groups, or in the private sector. The information will be useful in addressing a number of current issues, such as the effects of agricultural and urban land use on water quality, human health, drinking water, source-water protection, hypoxia and excessive growth of algae and plants, pesticide registration, and monitoring and sampling strategies. This report is also for individuals who wish to know more about the quality of streams and ground water in areas near where they live and how that water quality compares to the quality of water in other areas across the Nation. The water-quality conditions in the Great and Little Miami River Basins summarized in this report are discussed in detail in other reports that can be accessed from (http://oh.water.usgs.gov/miam/intro.html). Detailed technical information, data and analyses, collection and analytical methodology, models, graphs, and maps that support the findings presented in this report, in addition to reports in this series from other basins, can be accessed from the national NAWQA Web site (http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa).

Circular↗