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USGS2009

Maintaining the competitiveness of the American Fisheries Society journals: An assessment based on influence and cost-effectiveness

Recent changes in the landscape of scientific publishing prompted the Publications Overview Committee of the American Fisheries Society (AFS) to review the Society's portfolio of scientific journals. We evaluated journals based on metrics in two categories: (1) citation-based measures of the influence of a journal on the scientific literature, and (2) measures of the cost-effectiveness of a journal (citation rate adjusted for subscription cost). Over the long-term, we found that ecology journals had far stronger citation-based influence than fisheries and aquatic sciences journals, and that journals publishing primarily basic research had stronger influence than journals publishing applied research (including four AFS journals and Fisheries magazine). In evaluating the current status of fisheries and aquatic sciences journals, we found that metrics of influence and cost-effectiveness provided considerably different portrayals of journals relative to their peers. In terms of citation-based influence, we found that the AFS journal Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (TAFS) and Fisheries magazine were competitive with highly regarded peer fisheries journals, but that North American Journal of Aquaculture (NAJA) and Journal of Aquatic Animal Health (JAAH) were less influential than their peers. The citation-based influence of North American Journal of Fisheries Management (NAJFM) was intermediate between TAFS/Fisheries and NAJA/JAAH . For journals like NAJFM and NAJA , we expect that much of the scientific influence on policy and management is not captured by citations in the primary literature, and alternative methods of evaluation may be needed. All of the AFS journals ranked highly with regard to cost-effectiveness because their subscription costs are low, and these rankings are in accordance with membership needs and the strategic mission of AFS to provide broad and timely dissemination of scientific information. We conclude by suggesting ways to increase the influence of AFS journals without compromising their accessibility and affordability, and offer advice about methods and frequency for future journal evaluations.

Fisheries↗
USGS2018

U.S. Geological Survey Community for Data Integration 2017 Workshop Proceedings

Executive Summary The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Community for Data Integration (CDI) Workshop was held May 16–19, 2017 at the Denver Federal Center. There were 183 in-person attendees and 35 virtual attendees over four days. The theme of the workshop was “Enabling Integrated Science,” with the purpose of bringing together the community to discuss current topics, shared challenges, and steps forward to advance integrated science at the USGS. The CDI welcomed several keynote speakers, including Bill Werkheiser, USGS Acting Director; Kevin T. Gallagher, USGS Associate Director of the Core Science Systems Mission Area; Bruce Caron, Earth Science Information Partners Community Architect; and Tim Quinn, Chief of the USGS Office of Enterprise Information. Their presentations focused on the importance of collaborative, cross-disciplinary, and open science and the role of the CDI in identifying and supporting new opportunities in these areas for the USGS and its partners. In addition to the stated theme, the workshop agenda was driven by the needs of the CDI, with topics highlighting current resources and technologies that could help attendees in their daily work. Topical sessions were proposed by CDI members and included subjects such as data citation, information technology architecture, legacy data, real-time data, and many more. Plenary speakers from the community talked about USGS activities in data science, elevation and hydrography data integration, advanced scientific computing solutions, cloud computing, data-management training, and data-sharing agreements. Two panels addressed the role of the CDI in enabling integrated science and examples of CDI-supported projects in action. Breakout discussions focused on the workshop theme of “Enabling Integrated Science” and covered five topics: Data and Data Integration, Modeling, Computing Capacity, Science Data Integration, and User Needs and Experience. Sessions on each topic identified actions that could bring the USGS and the broader Earth science community closer to the goal of making integrated science commonplace. The breakouts produced recommendations with the broad themes of improving communication and connections across the USGS, reducing duplication and increasing knowledge transfer, increasing training and testbed opportunities to learn and experiment, and creating community-supported standards to enable better integration and interoperability. The DataBlast poster and live demonstration session showcased 36 projects from around the CDI and included recent CDI-funded projects as well as other USGS and partner initiatives that were related to data and software integration and discovery. Importantly, the CDI workshop provided a forum for scientists, technologists, data and resource managers, program managers, and others to convene face to face to discuss common methods, interests, challenges, and solutions related to scientific data and technologies. As a result of this rare convergence, new connections were made across disciplines, backgrounds, and geographical locations, seeding future activities and collaborations. Sharing of ideas from all attendees was encouraged through the use of a mobile application to collect real-time questions and feedback from the audience The primary outcomes of the workshop are the recommendations from the breakout sessions titled “Roadmap Discussions on Enabling Integrated Science” and from the topical sessions detailed in these proceedings. These sessions, as well as the plenary discussions, identified new areas of collaboration and learning that the CDI will facilitate, such as data science, software development, scientific modeling practices, and user needs and experience. The CDI will build on the results of the workshop to guide its future topics, events, and funding opportunities to support an integrated science capacity for the USGS.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2015

Collections management plan for the U.S. Geological Survey Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center Data Library

The U.S. Geological Survey Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center has created a Data Library to organize, preserve, and make available the field, laboratory, and modeling data collected and processed by Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center staff. This Data Library supports current research efforts by providing unique, historic datasets with accompanying metadata. The Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Data Library has custody of historic data and records that are still useful for research, and assists with preservation and distribution of marine science records and data in the course of scientific investigation and experimentation by researchers and staff at the science center. The data accession and retention policies employed by the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center Data Library are based on scientific need and the National Archives and Records Administration standards for Federal records retention. Criteria for inclusion of data and records into the Data Library, the scope of the Data Library holdings, and operating procedures for the management and running of the library are designed to support the research operations of the U.S. Geological Survey. This report explains the roles and detailed responsibilities of library and scientific staff, and provides step-by-step instructions for managing the collections of the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center Data Library.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2022

Evapotranspiration covers at uranium mill tailings sites

Waste isolation is a key strategy for mitigating risk from municipal solid waste (MSW) and hazardous waste streams. Conventional covers at MSW facilities are designed for a 30-yr post-closure period where compacted soils and geosynthetics are used to minimize percolation into buried waste. Recently, evapotranspiration (ET) covers have shown beneficial use for MSW management. Evapotranspiration covers encourage infiltration, storage, and transpiration of precipitation to minimize percolation. Such covers may also have beneficial use for long-term waste issues, such as at Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA) sites. These sites were covered by a clay radon barrier to create tortuous flow paths that allow radioactive decay and attenuation of short-lived, radon-222 gas. For long-term waste isolation, an ET-radon cover may provide greater resilience by exploiting natural processes instead of resisting them. This update presents a review of the current state-of-the-science regarding ET covers and considerations for long-term applications.

Conterminous United States↗
USGS2020

Prioritizing river basins for intensive monitoring and assessment by the US Geological Survey

The US Geological Survey (USGS) is currently (2020) integrating its water science programs to better address the nation’s greatest water resource challenges now and into the future. This integration will rely, in part, on data from 10 or more intensively monitored river basins from across the USA. A team of USGS scientists was convened to develop a systematic, quantitative approach to prioritize candidate basins for this monitoring investment to ensure that, as a group, the 10 basins will support the assessment and forecasting objectives of the major USGS water science programs. Candidate basins were the level-4 hydrologic units (HUC04) with some of the smaller HUC04s being combined; median candidate-basin area is 46,600 km 2 . Candidate basins for the contiguous United States (CONUS) were grouped into 18 hydrologic regions. Ten geospatial variables representing land use, climate change, water use, water-balance components, streamflow alteration, fire risk, and ecosystem sensitivity were selected to rank candidate basins within each of the 18 hydrologic regions. The two highest ranking candidate basins in each of the 18 regions were identified as finalists for selection as “Integrated Water Science Basins”; final selection will consider input from a variety of stakeholders. The regional framework, with only one basin selected per region, ensures that as a group, the basins represent the range in major drivers of the hydrologic cycle. Ranking within each region, primarily based on anthropogenic stressors of water resources, ensures that settings representing important water-resource challenges for the nation will be studied.

contiguous United States↗
USGS2022

Projecting the remaining habitat for the western spadefoot (Spea hammondii) in heavily urbanized southern California

Extensive urbanization in coastal southern California has reduced natural habitat in this biodiversity hotspot. To better conserve ecological communities, state and federal agencies, along with local jurisdictions and private stakeholders, developed regional conservation plans for southern California. Although many protected areas exist within this region, the patchwork nature of these protected areas might not provide good coverage for species that require multiple habitat components, such as amphibians with complex life histories. Because of declines in the past century, the status of the western spadefoot ( Spea hammondii ) in southern California is of concern to state and federal wildlife agencies. Species distribution models (SDMs) can aid in determining the conservation status of imperiled species by projecting where suitable habitat remains and how much is protected from further development. We built SDMs that integrated site-occupancy data from systematic pitfall trapping surveys and presence-only data from biodiversity databases and citizen science platforms to project the current distribution of western spadefoots in southern California. Western spadefoot occurrence was positively related to the cover of grassland or shrub/scrub and the % sand in the soil within a 1000 m buffer, and was negatively related to slope, elevation, and distance to ephemeral streams or vernal pools . Most of the remaining unprotected habitat for western spadefoots is in the southern half of its historical range in western San Diego and Riverside counties. A few large tracts of spadefoot habitat exist on U.S. Department of Defense lands and smaller tracts remain on ecological reserves owned by state and local government agencies. Only small patches of habitat remain in the northern half of this clade’s historical range in Ventura, Orange, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino counties. Existing regional conservation plans provide ostensible spatial coverage of the majority of extant habitat for western spadefoots in southern California, but most of the habitat within the jurisdiction of these plans lacks formal protection, exposing this species to further declines as urbanization continues in the 21st century.

California↗
USGS2022

Workshops report for mesophotic and deep benthic community fish, mobile invertebrates, sessile invertebrates and infauna

Two workshops with subject matter experts in the appropriate fields, were held in November and December 2021 to elicit guidance and feedback from the broader mesophotic and deep benthic scientific community. These workshops focused on best practices/approaches and identifying data gaps relative to habitat assessment and evaluation goals of the Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Community (MDBC) restoration portfolio. The first workshop was a combined effort of the Habitat Assessment and Evaluation (HAE) Project Team and the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Program. Industrial Economics, Inc. (IEc) provided extensive workshop planning, organizing, execution, and facilitation support during all stages of the workshop. Based on a questionnaire sent to scientists in August, 2021, the workshop focused on fish and mobile invertebrate habitat associations, abundance trends, community metrics, and food web functionality. Topical presentations and discussions focused not only on demersal fish and mobile invertebrates that are directly associated with mesophotic and deep benthic habitats, but also considered water column species and communities that benefit from these habitats more broadly. The second workshop, intended to complement the first workshop, focused on identifying best practices and critical information gaps for key community metrics, larval dispersal modeling, connectivity, effects and variability of environmental parameters, and recovery trajectories of corals, infauna, and other sessile invertebrates. Through literature review, internal HAE scientists considered these topics to be critical for restoration success. Products from the literature review included topical summaries (see Appendix B) that summarized the current state-of-the-science and provided the framework for the workshop. Information generated from the workshops will assist the MDBC HAE Project, and more broadly the DWH Program, identify data gaps and develop a suite of best practices for restoration activities.

DWH MDBC Summary Report↗
USGS2006

Proceedings of the 4th New World Luminescence Dating and Dosimetry Workshop, Denver, Colorado, May 31 June 2, 2006

Introduction: Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) is one of a class of measurements known as stimulated phenomena. Such phenomena may be stimulated thermally or optically and the reader is referred to works by Aitken (1998) and Botter-Jensen and others (2003) for more detail. In recent years OSL has become a popular procedure for the determination of environmental radiation doses absorbed by archeological and geological materials in an attempt to date these materials. The first OSL measurements on quartz and feldspar were made using an argon ion-laser (Huntley et al., 1985). However, the development of cheaper stimulation systems based first on filtered lamps and then on light- emitting diodes (LEDs) (Spooner, et al., 1990; Botter-Jensen, and others, 1999) has led to a massive expansion in OSL dating applications. The abstracts in this volume represent presentations from a workshop held in May-June 2006, at the Denver Federal Center, Denver, Colorado, in which OSL methodologies and applications were summarized and integrated to provide a current synthesis of the OSL science being applied throughout North America. The workshop, sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey Crustal Imaging and Characterization Team and North Dakota State University, was open to all scientists interested in OSL dating techniques and radiation dosimetry. Participants included thirty-six research scientists and students in geology, archaeology, and physics from the U.S. Geological Survey, Los Alamos National Labs, Kentucky Geological Survey, eight universities in the United States, one university in Canada, one university in India, and Riso National Labs of Denmark. The workshop included two keynote speakers: Dr. Ashok Singhvi (Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India) spoke on 'Some Unexplored Methodological Aspects and Some New Applications of Luminescence Dating,' while Dr. Jim Feathers (University of Seattle, WA) spoke on OSL Dating of Sediments From Paleoindian Sites in Brazil. The workshop encouraged everyone to interact more to develop a broader perspective on the types of research and the problems encountered when reporting OSL ages. This meeting follows the first North American Luminescence Dating Workshop held in Tulsa, OK, by Oklahoma State University (2001), in Albuquerque, NM, by Los Alamos National Labs (2002), and in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by Dalhousie University (2004, with a name change to New World Luminescence Dating Workshop). These workshops were interspersed with the international meetings on luminescence that were held in Reno, NV, (2002), and Cologne, Germany; (2005).

Open-File Report↗
USGS2015

A global satellite assisted precipitation climatology

Accurate representations of mean climate conditions, especially in areas of complex terrain, are an important part of environmental monitoring systems. As high-resolution satellite monitoring information accumulates with the passage of time, it can be increasingly useful in efforts to better characterize the earth's mean climatology. Current state-of-the-science products rely on complex and sometimes unreliable relationships between elevation and station-based precipitation records, which can result in poor performance in food and water insecure regions with sparse observation networks. These vulnerable areas (like Ethiopia, Afghanistan, or Haiti) are often the critical regions for humanitarian drought monitoring. Here, we show that long period of record geo-synchronous and polar-orbiting satellite observations provide a unique new resource for producing high resolution (0.05°) global precipitation climatologies that perform reasonably well in data sparse regions. Traditionally, global climatologies have been produced by combining station observations and physiographic predictors like latitude, longitude, elevation, and slope. While such approaches can work well, especially in areas with reasonably dense observation networks, the fundamental relationship between physiographic variables and the target climate variables can often be indirect and spatially complex. Infrared and microwave satellite observations, on the other hand, directly monitor the earth's energy emissions. These emissions often correspond physically with the location and intensity of precipitation. We show that these relationships provide a good basis for building global climatologies. We also introduce a new geospatial modeling approach based on moving window regressions and inverse distance weighting interpolation. This approach combines satellite fields, gridded physiographic indicators, and in situ climate normals. The resulting global 0.05° monthly precipitation climatology, the Climate Hazards Group's Precipitation Climatology version 1 (CHPclim v.1.0, http://dx.doi.org/10.15780/G2159X ), is shown to compare favorably with similar global climatology products, especially in areas with complex terrain and low station densities.

Earth System Science Data↗
USGS2010

Utah Science Activities, Update 2010

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Interior, serves the Nation by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life. The USGS has become a world leader in the natural sciences thanks to our scientific excellence and responsiveness to society's needs. This newsletter describes some of the current and recently completed USGS earth-science activities in Utah. As an unbiased, multi-disciplinary science organization that focuses on biology, geography, geology, and water, we are dedicated to the timely, relevant, and impartial study of the landscape, our natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten us. Learn more about our goals and priorities for the coming decade in the USGS Science Strategy at http://www.usgs.gov/science_strategy/ .

General Information Product↗
USGS2011

Using models for the optimization of hydrologic monitoring

Hydrologists are often asked what kind of monitoring network can most effectively support science-based water-resources management decisions. Currently (2011), hydrologic monitoring locations often are selected by addressing observation gaps in the existing network or non-science issues such as site access. A model might then be calibrated to available data and applied to a prediction of interest (regardless of how well-suited that model is for the prediction). However, modeling tools are available that can inform which locations and types of data provide the most 'bang for the buck' for a specified prediction. Put another way, the hydrologist can determine which observation data most reduce the model uncertainty around a specified prediction. An advantage of such an approach is the maximization of limited monitoring resources because it focuses on the difference in prediction uncertainty with or without additional collection of field data. Data worth can be calculated either through the addition of new data or subtraction of existing information by reducing monitoring efforts (Beven, 1993). The latter generally is not widely requested as there is explicit recognition that the worth calculated is fundamentally dependent on the prediction specified. If a water manager needs a new prediction, the benefits of reducing the scope of a monitoring effort, based on an old prediction, may be erased by the loss of information important for the new prediction. This fact sheet focuses on the worth or value of new data collection by quantifying the reduction in prediction uncertainty achieved be adding a monitoring observation. This calculation of worth can be performed for multiple potential locations (and types) of observations, which then can be ranked for their effectiveness for reducing uncertainty around the specified prediction. This is implemented using a Bayesian approach with the PREDUNC utility in the parameter estimation software suite PEST (Doherty, 2010). The techniques briefly described earlier are described in detail in a U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report available on the Internet (Fienen and others, 2010; http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2010/5159/). This fact sheet presents a synopsis of the techniques as applied to a synthetic model based on a model constructed using properties from the Lake Michigan Basin (Hoard, 2010).

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2007

U.S. Geological Survey Mentoring Program - Paired for a Powerful Science Future

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) prides itself in its excellence in science. The resource bank of skills and knowledge that is contained within the current employees of the USGS is what makes our science excellent. With an aging workforce, we must ensure that the knowledge and skills represented by those years of experience are passed to new employees. To ensure that this bank of knowledge and experience is not lost and thereby sustain the excellence of our science, the Mentoring Program focuses on intentional mentoring, the deliberate transfer of skills and knowledge. Skills transfer from more experienced employees to those who are less experienced is critical. By placing an emphasis on intentional mentoring, we help to meet the scientific and technical needs of the employees by offering a cost-effective way to gain knowledge and skills necessary to maintain excellence in science. By encouraging and fostering a mentoring atmosphere within the USGS, we are investing in the future of our organization. With improved technical skills, increased job effectiveness, and resulting satisfaction, USGS employees will not only be more invested and engaged, they will also be able to work smarter, thus benefiting from the experience of their mentor.

Fact Sheet↗
USGS2024

Need and vision for global medium-resolution Landsat and Sentinel-2 data products

Global changes in climate and land use are threatening natural ecosystems, biodiversity, and the ecosystem services people rely on. This is why it is necessary to track and monitor spatiotemporal change at a level of detail that can inform science, management, and policy development. The current constellation of multiple Landsat and Sentinel-2 satellites collecting imagery at predominantly ≤ "> ≤ 30-m spatial resolution affords an opportunity for the generation of global medium- resolution products every few days. Our goal is to both identify the information needs and provide direction towards the generation of a suite of global, high-level, systematically-generated, medium-resolution products designed for both management and science. Our vision builds on the success of the NASA MODIS/VIIRS product suite, while recognizing the unique strengths of medium-resolution satellite data given their higher spatial resolution and longer time series. We propose a suite of 13 essential products that enable the characterization of the current state and changes in the biosphere, cryosphere, and hydrosphere, and would fill information needs identified by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites for the Global Climate Observing System and the Global Terrestrial Observing System, by the National Research Council of the US National Academies in the decadal survey, and by others. These products are: land cover, land cover change, burned area, forest loss, vegetation indices, phenology, dynamic habitat indices, albedo, land surface temperature, snow cover, ice extent, surface water extent, and evapotranspiration. Furthermore, we provide a list of desirable products poised for addition to the essential products (e.g., crop type, emissivity, and ice sheet velocity). Lastly, we suggest aspirational products requiring further algorithm development (e.g., forest structure and crop yield). For the identified essential products, algorithms are in place, making it feasible to begin generating products systematically. These products should be accompanied by quality and accuracy assessments undertaken following consensus protocols. Five decades after the first Landsat satellite, and two decades after the MODIS products were first produced, it is time now for readily available, standardized, and consistent high-level products built upon medium-resolution imagery, thereby fulfilling the promise and the vision that inspired the Landsat program since its inception.

Remote Sensing of Environment↗
USGS2021

U.S. Geological Survey landscape science strategy 2020–2030

Across our Nation, multiple Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments are working with stakeholders and landowners to restore, conserve, and manage lands and resources to benefit fish, wildlife, and people. One of the largest Federal efforts is led by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), with multiple DOI agencies working to conserve and manage public lands, resources, and cultural heritage for the benefit and enjoyment of current and future generations. As a science provider within the DOI, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has an important role in developing actionable science products that can inform decision making on public lands and across all of our Nation’s landscapes. Our landscapes and resources are undergoing continual change from a complex and interacting suite of stressors that include traditional and nontraditional land uses, a changing climate, a dynamic economy, and a culturally diverse and ever-changing society. Landscape science seeks to understand how the physical, biological, and social components of ecosystems and landscapes interact with each other and are affected by these stressors across local to global scales. The USGS has developed this landscape science strategy to focus and strengthen the agency’s efforts to inform critical conservation, restoration, and management decisions for American landscapes. The strategy directly supports the overarching 21st-century science strategy of the USGS and expands our perspective and focus on partnerships, including with internal, external, traditional, and nontraditional partners. The vision for USGS landscape science is to integrate multiple disciplines and approaches to create and deliver relevant, timely, and scientifically sound products that enable our partners to make informed decisions about how to manage complex interacting natural and human systems across changing American landscapes. This strategy seeks to leverage the expertise, data, analytical capacity, and tools of the agency and to strengthen integration of science efforts across programs and scales. A cornerstone of the strategy is working closely with landowners and resource managers to identify the science that is needed to inform management actions, and then working collaboratively with those same partners to coproduce science and data products that are timely, practical, and useful for their decision making. Many individual efforts within the USGS already embrace landscape science ideas and practices. With the development of this strategy, we are seeking to build on these efforts and to focus agency attention and expertise on expanding, connecting, and institutionalizing core practices and approaches for landscape science that produces actionable science products and tools that decision makers can use to help conserve and manage American landscapes.

Circular↗
USGS2021

Current activity on the Martian surface: A key subject for future exploration

One of the fundamental discoveries in Mars science in the last decade has been the extent and importance of current surface activity. Recent results have shifted our view of Mars from a world where the most interesting geologic events were in the distant past (similar to the Moon) to a world that undergoes active evolution and one where understanding the present is key to deciphering the planet’s history. When input was requested for the last Planetary Science Decadal Survey, some observations of surface changes had been published, but the number of detections was small and their significance not fully appreciated. Since that time, detections have proliferated, driven primarily by the long-term operation of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) as well as landed observations of aeolian activity. In addition to observed changes, theory suggests that additional important surface processes are likely active but not yet observed because orbital data are limited in space and time and landed studies are rare. Understanding current Martian surface processes is a fundamental science question in itself, as it provides a test for physical and terrestrial analog-based models of specific geological processes acting under non-Earth planetary and environmental conditions. It is also an essential step for reading Mars’ geologic history and providing input to climate models: without understanding current dynamic processes, we cannot understand how they have varied during recent climate cycles, nor how they are reflected in ancient rock or modern ice records. Understanding the rates and types of current surface activity is also highly relevant to selecting geological samples, setting Planetary Protection rules, and understanding the hazards and environment that would be experienced by future human explorers.

Bulletin of the AAS↗
USGS2012

Field evaluation of shallow-water acoustic doppler current profiler discharge measurements

In 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Office of Surface Water staff and USGS Water Science employees began testing the StreamPro, an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) for shallow-water discharge measurements. Teledyne RD Instruments introduced the StreamPro in December of 2003. The StreamPro is designed to make a "moving boat" discharge measurement in streams with depths between 0.15 and 2 m. If the StreamPro works reliably in these conditions, it will allow for use of ADCPs in a greater number of streams than previously possible. Evaluation sites were chosen to test the StreamPro over a range of conditions. Simultaneous discharge measurements with mechanical and other acoustic meters, along with stable rating curves at established USGS streamflow-gaging stations, were used for comparisons. The StreamPro measurements ranged in mean velocity from 0.076 to 1.04 m/s and in discharge from 0.083 m 3/s to 43.4 m 3/s. Tests indicate that discharges measured with the StreamPro compare favorably to the discharges measured with the other meters when the mean channel velocity is greater than 0.25 m/s. When the mean channel velocity is less than 0.25 m/s, the StreamPro discharge measurements for individual transects have greater variability than those StreamPro measurements where the mean channel velocity is greater than 0.25 m/s. Despite this greater variation in individual transects, there is no indication that the StreamPro measured discharges (the mean discharge for all transects) are biased, provided that enough transects are used to determine the mean discharge. ?? 2007 ASCE.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2011

Groundwater technical procedures of the U.S. Geological Survey

A series of groundwater technical procedures documents (GWPDs) has been released by the U.S. Geological Survey, Water-Resources Discipline, for general use by the public. These technical procedures were written in response to the need for standardized technical procedures of many aspects of groundwater science, including site and measuring-point establishment, measurement of water levels, and measurement of well discharge. The techniques are described in the GWPDs in concise language and are accompanied by necessary figures and tables derived from cited manuals, reports, and other documents. Because a goal of this series of procedures is to remain current with the state of the science, and because procedures change over time, this report is released in an online format only. As new procedures are developed and released, they will be linked to this document.

Techniques and Methods↗
USGS2018

Beyond traditional ecological restoration on the Colorado Plateau

The Colorado Plateau is one of North America's five major deserts, encompassing 340,000 km 2 of the western U.S., and offering many opportunities for restoration relevant to researchers and land managers in drylands around the globe. The Colorado Plateau is comprised of vast tracts of public land managed by local, state, and federal agencies that oversee a wide range of activities (e.g., mineral and energy extraction, livestock grazing, and recreation). About 75% of the Plateau is managed by federal and tribal agencies and tens of millions of people visit the Plateau's public lands each year. However, even in the face of this diverse use, our knowledge of effective ways to restore Plateau ecosystems remains relatively poor. Further, the multiple agencies on the Plateau have mandates that differ greatly in allowable practices, restoration needs, and desired outcomes. The Colorado Plateau is also expected to undergo ecosystem shifts in the face of climate change, further complicating management decisions and potentially limiting some options while creating others. Here we explore the current state of Colorado Plateau restoration science and underscore key challenges and opportunities for improving our capacity to maintain the myriad of services provided by these desert ecosystems. We highlight past research efforts and future needs related to restoration concepts, including consideration and design of novel ecosystems, mitigation for and adaptation to climate change, use of genetically diverse seed adapted for current and future conditions, and the value of strong multi‐agency and stakeholder collaborations in restoring systems on the Colorado Plateau and beyond.

Colorado Plateau↗