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.
Science Quality and Integrity
Science Quality and Integrity
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Mission Area Publications
Mission Area Publications
We are focused on some of the most significant issues society faces, and our science is making a substantial contribution to the well-being of the Nation and the world. Learn more about the major topics our research covers and the programs focused on those topics.
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Chemistry, growth, and fate of the unique, short-lived (2019–2020) water lake at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii
Less than a year after the 2018 Kīlauea caldera collapse and eruption, water appeared in newly deepened Halemaʻumaʻu crater. The lake—unprecedented in the written record—grew to a depth of ∼50 m before lava from the December 2020 eruption boiled it away. Surface water heightened concerns of potential phreatic or phreatomagmatic explosions but also offered a new means of possibly identifying erupti
Authors
Patricia A. Nadeau, Shaul Hurwitz, Sara Peek, Allan Lerner, Edward F. Younger, Matthew R. Patrick, David Damby, R. Blaine McCleskey, Peter J. Kelly
Trace silicon determination in biological samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS): Insight into volatility of silicon species in hydrofluoric acid digests for optimal sample preparation and introduction to ICP-MS
A method for the determination of trace levels of silicon from biological materials by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been developed. The volatility of water-soluble silicon species, hexafluorosilicic acid (H2SiF6), and sodium metasilicate (Na2SiO3) was investigated by evaporating respective solutions (50 µg/mL silicon) in nitric acid (HNO3), nitric acid + hydrochloric a
Authors
Zikri Arslan, Heather A. Lowers
Deep learning for water quality
Understanding and predicting the quality of inland waters are challenging, particularly in the context of intensifying climate extremes expected in the future. These challenges arise partly due to complex processes that regulate water quality, and arduous and expensive data collection that exacerbate the issue of data scarcity. Traditional process-based and statistical models often fall short in p
Authors
Wei Zhi, Alison P. Appling, Heather E. Golden, Joel Podgorski, Li Li
Landsat Next
Landsat Next's launch in the early 2030s will ensure continuity of the longest space-based record of Earth’s land surfaces. The mission will substantially increase the breadth and quality of Earth observation data available to scientists, land managers, and others responsible for managing Earth's natural resources. Landsat Next’s constellation of three satellites will carry sensors that improve bo
Using global remote camera data of a solitary species complex to evaluate the drivers of group formation
The social system of animals involves a complex interplay between physiology, natural history, and the environment. Long relied upon discrete categorizations of “social” and “solitary” inhibit our capacity to understand species and their interactions with the world around them. Here, we use a globally distributed camera trapping dataset to test the drivers of aggregating into groups in a species c
Authors
Joshua P. Twining, Chris Sutherland, Andrzej Zalewski, Michael V. Cove, Johnny Birks, Oliver R. Wearn, Jessica Haysom, Anna Wereszczuk, Emiliano Manzo, Paola Bartolommei, Alessio Mortelliti, Bryn Evans, Brian D. Gerber, Thomas J. McGreevy, Laken S. Ganoe, Juliana Masseloux, Amy E. Mayer, Izabela Wierzbowska, Jan Loch, Jocelyn Akins, Donovan Drummey, William McShea, Stephanie Manke, Lain Pardo, Andy Boyce, Sheng Li, Roslina Binti Ragai, Ronglarp Sukmasuang, Álvaro José Villafañe Trujillo, Carlos López-González, Nalleli Elvira Lara-Díaz, Olivia Cosby, Cristian N. Waggershauser, Jack Bamber, Frances Stewart, Jason Fisher, Angela K. Fuller, Kelly Perkins, Roger A. Powell
Habitat amount and edge effects, not perch proximity, nest exposure, or vegetation diversity affect cowbird parasitism in agricultural landscapes
ContextPrior research documented relationships between brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) brood parasitism and edge effects, proximity of perches, and nest exposure. Those relationships have not been evaluated in agroecosystems containing extremes of fragmentation and vegetation diversity.ObjectivesWe compared three existing hypotheses on how cowbirds locate host nests with two new hypotheses r
Authors
Matthew D. Stephenson, Kyla L. Yuza, Lisa A. Schulte, Robert W. Klaver
Growth, survival, and cohort formation of juvenile Lost River (Deltistes luxatus) and shortnose suckers (Chasmistes brevirostris) in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, and Clear Lake Reservoir, California—2021–22 monitoring report
Executive SummaryThe work reported in this publication provides updated data and interpretation for sampling years 2015 and 2022 of the juvenile monitoring project. The study objectives, background, study area, species description, and methods remained the same or similar throughout the years, while the executive summary, results, and discussion were updated each year. Therefore much of this paper
Authors
Barbara A. Martin, John M. Caldwell, Jacob R. Krause, Alta C. Harris
Climate-induced tree-mortality pulses are obscured by broad-scale and long-term greening
Vegetation greening has been suggested to be a dominant trend over recent decades, but severe pulses of tree mortality in forests after droughts and heatwaves have also been extensively reported. These observations raise the question of to what extent the observed severe pulses of tree mortality induced by climate could affect overall vegetation greenness across spatial grains and temporal extents
Authors
Yuchao Yan, Shilong Piao, William M. Hammond, Anping Chen, Songbai Hong, Xu Hao, Seth M. Munson, Ranga B. Myneni, Craig D. Allen
Too simple, too complex, or just right? Advantages, challenges, and guidance for indicators of genetic diversity
Measuring genetic diversity of wild species using DNA-based data remains resource intensive and time consuming for nearly all species. However, genetic assessments are needed for global conservation commitments, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, and for governments and managers to evaluate conservation progress, as well as prioritizing species and populations to preserve and recove
Authors
Sean M. Hoban, Jessica M. da Silva, Alice C. Hughes, Margaret Hunter, Belma Kalamujić Stroil, Linda Laikre, Alicia Mastretta-Yanes, Katie L Millette, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Lucia Ruiz Bustos, Robyn E. Shaw, Cristiano Vernesi, the Coalition for Conservation Genetics
The decision maker’s lament: If I only had some science!
Environmental decision makers lament instances in which the lack of actionable science limits confident decision-making. Their reaction when the needed scientific information is of poor quality, uninformative, unintelligible, or altogether absent is often to criticize scientists, their work, or science in general. The considerations offered here encourage decision makers to explore alternative app
Authors
Gustavo A. Bisbal
Demographic patterns of walleye (Sander vitreus) reproductive success in a Wisconsin population
Harvest in walleye Sander vitreus fisheries is size-selective and could influence phenotypic traits of spawners; however, contributions of individual spawners to recruitment are unknown. We used parentage analyses using single nucleotide polymorphisms to test whether parental traits were related to the probability of offspring survival in Escanaba Lake, Wisconsin. From 2017 to 2020, 1339 adults an
Authors
Robert P. Davis, Levi M. Simmons, Stephanie L. Shaw, Greg G. Sass, Nicholas M. Sard, Daniel A. Isermann, Wesley A. Larson, Jared Joseph Homola
Characterization of the structural–stratigraphic and reservoir controls on the occurrence of gas hydrates in the Eileen Gas Hydrate Trend, Alaska North Slope
One of the most studied permafrost-associated gas hydrate accumulations in Arctic Alaska is the Eileen Gas Hydrate Trend. This study provides a detailed re-examination of the Eileen Gas Hydrate Trend with a focus on the gas hydrate accumulation in the western part of the Prudhoe Bay Unit. This integrated analysis of downhole well log data and published geophysical data has provided new insight on
Authors
Margarita Zyrianova, Timothy Collett, Ray Boswell