USGS Newsroom

January Highlights:

• USGS Press Conference Planned on Die-Off-Causing Nutrient Delivery to the Gulf of Mexico
• Earthquakes Claim 709 Lives in 2007
• Podcast: The Unusual Suspects
• Wildfire Woes for Those That Hop, Crawl, Swim and Eat a Lot
• The Fire's Out, but Danger Remains - Post-Wildfire Debris Flows
• Frog Tracks
• "Radio Active" Biologists Get the Skinny on a Rare Rail
• Now Available: Decades of Data on Coastal Change
• New Wildlife Disease News Map Tool
• USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Marks 25 Years of Kilauea Volcano Eruption
• The USGS Offers New Insights on Bald Eagles

The USGS is hosting a press conference to announce the results of a study on nitrogen and phosphorus delivery to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River Basin. Find out the geographic areas and the land use practices that are the highest contributors of nutrients to the Gulf.

Who: Robert M. Hirsch, Associate Director for Water, USGS

Richard Alexander, Hydrologist and lead author of study, USGS

Benjamin H. Grumbles, Assistant Administrator for Water, EPA

Tim Petty, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, DOI

Where: The National Press Club

Murrow Room

529 14th Street NW

Washington, DC 20045

When: Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008

1:00 p.m. - 2:00p.m.

Call in number: 800- 945-9434

For more information, contact Jennifer LaVista at (703) 648-4432 or jlavista@usgs.gov. Also, look for the study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology on Feb. 1. The article, along with frequently asked questions, maps, other downloadable graphics and a podcast will go live at 1p.m., today, and can be accessed at http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/sparrow/gulf_findings.

At least 709 deaths resulted from earthquake activity worldwide in 2007, according to the USGS and confirmed by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. This is the fewest number of casualties from earthquakes in a year since 2000, when 231 people were killed. Most of the fatalities for the year - at least 514 - occurred when a magnitude 8.0 earthquake hit Pisco, Peru, on Aug. 15. An additional number of at least 4256 people were injured by earthquakes during the year. Earthquakes caused casualties or damage in 23 countries during 2007. Find out more about earthquakes in far-flung places. For more information contact Heidi Koontz at (303) 202-4763 or hkoontz@usgs.gov.

In 2007, Web visitors requested almost 50,000 pages from the USGS newsroom using the USGS Science Picks, this monthly media tip sheet. Find out three of the most popular and intriguing topics of 2007 by listening to episode 26 of CoreCast, the USGS Podcast, at usgs.gov/ USGS CORECAST. You'll hear about Louisiana coastal land loss, the dangerous antics of the acrobatic Asian carp, and the unusual relationship with between a plant, a fungus and a virus that sheds light on evolution. For more information contact Denver Makle at (703) 648-4732 or dmakle@usgs.gov.

The Southern California wildfires in late 2007 impacted more than humans. Wildlife also suffered. Certain groups of animals seem to be disproportionately affected by the fires, such as non-forest salamanders and shrews. Scientists are also concerned about the steelhead rainbow trout population in the Santa Ana Mountains of Orange County, Calif., because it may be the last genetically pure form of its kind in these mountains. Listen to USGS Biologist Robert Fisher describe what USGS scientists discovered about the wildfire impact on wildlife by listening to episode 25 of CoreCast, the USGS podcast, at www.usgs.gov/corecast. For more information, contact Clarice Nassif Ransom at (703) 648-4299 or cransom@usgs.gov.

Once the smoke clears from a wildfire, the danger is not over. Other hazards, such as flash floods and debris flows, now become the concern. Watch a video of the Christmas Day, 2003, debris flow in Devore, Calif., taken by local citizen Howard Davis by visiting the USGS California Water Science Center webpage. You can also listen to an interview with USGS research geologist Sue Cannon on debris-flow dangers after wildfires in episode 22 of CoreCast, the USGS podcast, at www.usgs.gov/corecast. For more information, contact Sue Cannon at (303) 273-8604 or cannon@usgs.gov.

Home is where the heart is, and during the winter wet season (December to March), California red-legged frogs head home to mate. But getting back to breeding ponds and pools may mean a trek of about 150 meters from areas where the frogs had dispersed during the nonbreeding dry season (May to October). To find out more about how scientists track frog movements and what they've learned about their habitat needs, visit http://armi.usgs.gov/feature_red_legged_frog.asp, or contact Gary Fellers at (415) 464-5185 or gary_fellers@usgs.gov.

One of the greatest habitat threats to tidal wetlands in the San Francisco Bay estuary is the invasion of smooth cordgrass, a species native to the Atlantic coast. Invasive Spartina displaces and hybridizes with native Pacific cordgrass, altering both the physical structure and biological composition of tidal marshes, mud flats and creeks. The endangered California clapper rail, a bird species that is one of the least numerous and most sensitive indicators of tidal wetland health in the San Francisco Bay estuary, inhabits multiple elevational tidal marsh zones throughout the estuary, but the largest populations are found in the South Bay, the region most heavily invaded by smooth cordgrass. USGS scientists are using telemetry - remote tracking by radio frequency of individual rails outfitted with transmitter backpacks - to reveal more about this shy bird''s habitat needs. What they are learning will help minimize impacts to rails and guide efforts to eradicate smooth cordgrass in areas where the rails live. For more, see http://www.werc.usgs.gov/dixon/rails/index.html, or contact Mike Casazza at (707) 678-0682, x629 or mike_casazza@usgs.gov.

The USGS National Wetlands Research Center in Lafayette, La., is developing a special Web site and databases to collect data on coastal change along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts from federal and state sources that can be accessed immediately for scientific response. Among these databases are NWRC's own large spatial databases, including more than 70 years of wetland change data. These findings are being updated each fall (after the spring and summer growing season of wetland plants) to determine the recovery of vegetation that was either completely or partially removed by the hurricanes' surges and to determine how vegetation may be changing in response to those surges. For more information, contact John Barras at john_barras@usgs.gov or (225) 578-7486.

A new map tool is available from the USGS-NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node, http://wildlifedisease.nbii.gov. Articles posted to the Wildlife Disease News Digest, http://wdin.blogspot.com, in the previous 45 days are displayed on a map based on their geographical location. This allows readers to see the news happening both in their area and worldwide. For more information, contact Catherine Puckett at (352) 264-3532 or cpuckett@usgs.gov.

On Jan. 3, Kilauea Volcano on the island of Hawai‘i officially recorded a mostly continuous 25-year period of eruption history. To recognize the anniversary, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists will be presenting public talks about different aspects of the 25-year eruption each Tuesday evening in January as part of the "After Dark in the Park" lecture series, sponsored by Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. See http://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/events_adip.htm. During this 25-year period, Kilauea has produced lava covering 46 square miles of the Puna District, both inside and outside of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, a volume equivalent to an amount that would cover the entire District of Columbia to a depth of 62 ft. The eruption has destroyed 190 structures and nearly 9 miles of highway, and has been directly responsible for the deaths of five sightseers. During the past several years, more than 1.5 million visitors a year have witnessed the spectacle of molten lava in the Park. For more information contact Stephanie Hanna at (206) 220-4573 or shanna@usgs.gov.

A new analysis of wintering bald eagles shows increasing numbers nationwide. The data, based on field counts of wintering bald eagles from 1986 - 2005, includes surveys along standard routes in 43 states and documents the highest level of increase in the Northeast United States during the 20-year period of observations. In contrast, counts in the Southwestern United States decreased markedly each year over the same 20-year period. In 2007, the USGS established a partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to maintain the long-term, national coordination of the Annual Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey, data analysis, and reporting. The new USGS analysis is available at http://ocid.nacse.org/nbii/eagles/, where users can get data and summary information for individual survey routes and estimates of count trends for different regions and states. For more information contact Karen Steenhof at (208) 426-5206 or Karen_steenhof@usgs.gov.