Publications
Browse more than 160,000 publications authored by our scientists over the past 100+ year history of the USGS. Publications available are: USGS-authored journal articles, series reports, book chapters, other government publications, and more.
Mission Area Publications
Mission Area Publications
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Genetic evidence for the presence of wild-caught sturgeons in commercial markets in Georgia
Sturgeons (Family: Acipenseridae) are among the most endangered taxa worldwide. Significant resources have been invested into the conservation of global sturgeon populations, including the development of commercial aquaculture programs. These programs are intended to improve conservation outcomes by reducing the harvest of wild populations while still meeting commercial demand for sturgeon product
Authors
Tamar Beridze, Shannon L. White, David C. Kazyak, Levan Ninua, Dewayne A. Fox, Arun Sethuraman, Tamar Edisherashvili, Bianca Roberts, Mikheil Potskhishvili, Michelle Klailova, Cort Anderson
Atmospheric river activity during the late Holocene exceeds modern range of variability in California
Atmospheric rivers are associated with some of the largest flood-producing precipitation events in western North America, particularly California. Insight into past extreme precipitation can be reconstructed from sedimentary archives on millennial timescales. Here we document atmospheric river activity near Leonard Lake, California, over 3,200 years, using a key metric of atmospheric river intensi
Authors
Clarke Alexandra Knight, Lysanna Anderson, Liubov S. Presnetsova, Marie Rhondelle Champagne, David Wahl
Flexible migration and habitat use strategies of an endangered waterbird during hydrological drought
Wildlife species confront threats from climate and land use change, exacerbating the influence of extreme climatic events on populations and biodiversity. Migratory waterbirds are especially vulnerable to hydrological drought via reduced availability of surface water habitats. We assessed how whooping cranes (Grus americana) modified habitat use and migration strategies during drought to evaluate
Authors
Aaron T. Pearse, Andrew J. Caven, David M. Baasch, Mark T. Bidwell, John A Conkin, David A. Brandt
Ecological inferences on invasive carp survival using hydrodynamics and egg drift models
Bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), silver carp (H. molitrix), black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus), and grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), are invasive species in North America. However, they hold significant economic importance as food sources in China. The drifting stage of carp eggs has received great attention because egg survival rate is strongly affected by river hydrodynamics. In
Authors
Ruichen Xu, Duane Chapman, Caroline M. Elliott, Bruce Call, Robert B. Jacobson, Binbin Yang
Bathymetric and velocimetric surveys at highway bridges crossing the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers on the periphery of Missouri, June 13–22, 2022
Bathymetric and velocimetric data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Transportation, near seven bridges at six highway crossings of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers on the periphery of Missouri from June 13–22, 2022. A multibeam echosounder mapping system was used to obtain channel-bed elevations for river reaches about 1,640 feet longit
Authors
Richard J. Huizinga
Genetic structure of restored Brook Trout populations in the Southern Appalachian Mountains indicates successful reintroductions
Wildlife reintroduction is an important conservation tool for threatened species, yet identifying appropriate source populations poses a challenge. In particular, the possibility of outbreeding depression is cited as a constraint limiting the range of candidate source populations for translocation. When multiple source lineages are mixed during reintroduction, genetic monitoring is necessary to ev
Authors
Rebecca J. Smith, David C. Kazyak, Matt A. Kulp, Barbara A. Lubinski, Benjamin M. Fitzpatrick
Spatiotemporal patterns in habitat use of natal and non-natal adult Atlantic sturgeon in two spawning rivers
BackgroundMonitoring movement across an organism’s ontogeny is often challenging, particularly for long-lived or wide-ranging species. When empirical data are unavailable, general knowledge about species’ ecology may be used to make assumptions about habitat use across space or time. However, inferences about habitat use based on population-level ecology may overlook important eco-evolutionary con
Authors
Shannon L. White, Matthew W. Breece, Dewayne A. Fox, David C. Kazyak, Amanda Higgs, Ian A Park, Cassia Busch, Barbara A. Lubinski, Robin L. Johnson, Amy Welsh
Carotenoid skin ornaments as flexible indicators of male foraging behavior in a marine predator: Variation among Mexican colonies of brown booby (Sula leucogaster)
Carotenoid-dependent ornaments can reflect animals’ diet and foraging behaviors. However, this association should be spatially flexible and variable among populations to account for geographic variation in optimal foraging behaviors. We tested this hypothesis using populations of a marine predator (the brown booby, Sula leucogaster) that forage across a gradient in ocean depth in and near the Gulf
Authors
Nathan P. Michael, Roxana Torres, Andreanna J. Welch, Jonathan J. Felis, Mario Erandi Bonillas-Monge, Josh Adams, Samantha Hodgson, Laura Lopez-Marques, Alejadro Martínez-Flores, Gala Enidh Castro-Mejias, Anne E. Wiley
Eggshell membrane thickness and its contribution to total eggshell thickness for 13 waterbird species
Eggshell thickness can be an indicator of environmental pollution in wild birds and shell quality in wild and domestic birds, but it is difficult to measure calcite eggshell thickness due to the presence of the adherent outer eggshell membrane. Eggshells of 13 waterbird species were divided in half longitudinally and the outer membrane was removed from one of the halves. Subsequently, we measured
Authors
Gary M. Santolo, Sarah H. Peterson, Breanne Cooney, C. Alex Hartman, Mark P. Herzog, Josh T. Ackerman
Wetland creation and reforestation of legacy surface mines in the Central Appalachian Region (USA): A potential climate-adaptation approach for pond-breeding amphibians?
Habitat restoration and creation within human-altered landscapes can buffer the impacts of climate change on wildlife. The Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) is a coal surface mine reclamation practice that enhances reforestation through soil decompaction and the planting of native trees. Recently, wetland creation has been coupled with FRA to increase habitat available for wildlife, including am
Authors
Lauren Sherman, Christopher D. Barton, Jacquelyn C. Guzy, Rebecca N. Davenport, John J. Cox, Jeffery L. Larkin, Todd Fearer, Jillian C. Newman, Steven J. Price
Reproduction of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) in the Maumee River, Ohio: Part 2—Optimal river conditions for egg and larval drift
This study uses a one-dimensional steady-state hydraulic model and the Fluvial Egg Drift Simulator (FluEgg) to model the drift and dispersion of grass carp eggs and larvae in the Maumee River, Ohio, for 180 scenarios representing different combinations of 10 river flows, 6 water temperatures, and 3 spawning locations. The FluEgg simulations were used to quantify in-river suspended hatching rates (
Authors
Jessica Z. LeRoy, Henry F. Doyle, P. Ryan Jackson, Charles V. Cigrand
Craters of habit: Patterns of deformation in the western Galápagos
The western Galápagos islands of Fernandina and Isabela comprise six active volcanoes that have deformed since first observed by satellite radar in the early 1990s. We analyse new (2015–2022) displacement time series at Alcedo, Cerro Azul, Darwin, Fernandina, Sierra Negra, and Wolf volcanoes in the context of deformation and unrest since 1992. Previous discussions of volcano deformation have focu
Authors
Eoin Reddin, Susanna K. Ebmeier, Marco Bagnardi, Andrew F. Bell, Pedro Espín Bedón