All Publications

Species with extensive geographical ranges pose special challenges to assessing drivers of wildlife disease, necessitating collaborative and large-scale analyses. The imperilled foothill yellow-legged frog (Rana boylii) inhabits a wide geographical range and variable conditions in rivers of California and Oregon (USA), and is considered threatened by the pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd

Avian eggshell thickness is an important life history metric in birds and has broad applications across disciplines ranging from animal behavior to toxicology. Empirical eggshell thickness values for songbirds (Order Passeriformes) are under-represented in the literature due to the difficulty of measuring smaller eggs using traditional methods. We used a Hall-effect thickness gauge to measure eggs

As part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s 2023 50‐State National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM), we make modest revisions and additions to the central and eastern U.S. (CEUS) fault‐based seismic source model that result in locally substantial hazard changes. The CEUS fault‐based source model was last updated as part of the 2014 NSHM and considered new information from the Seismic Source Characterizatio

The Permian Basin, underlying southeast New Mexico and west Texas, is one of the most productive oil and gas (OG) provinces in the United States. Oil and gas production yields large volumes of wastewater with complex chemistries, and the environmental health risks posed by these OG wastewaters on sensitive desert ecosystems are poorly understood. Starting in November 2017, 39 illegal dumps, as def

Changes in the quantity of sand stored within river segments can affect aquatic and riparian habitat, archeological resources, and recreation. Since summer to fall of 2002, gaging stations on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park and on its major tributaries and selected lesser tributaries have measured the mass of sand transported past each station, which allows for changes in the mass

In 2012, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior placed a 20-year limit on mineral extraction on Federal lands in the Grand Canyon watershed to permit further study of the environmental effects of uranium mining. Tribal concerns were also noted by the U.S. Department of the Interior and included in the rationale for the decision stating Tribal resource impacts could not be mitigated a

Many studies use landscape form to determine spatial patterns of tectonic deformation, and these are particularly effective when paired with independent measures of rock uplift and erosion. Here, we use morphometric analyses and 10Be catchment-averaged erosion rates, together with reverse slip rates from the Sierra Madre−Cucamonga fault zone, to reveal patterns in uplift, erosion, and fault activi

Leaf litter decomposition is a key ecosystem process in headwater streams, influenced by physical fragmentation, microbial degradation and feeding activity by stream biota. In some tropical streams, feeding by freshwater shrimps can exert strong top-down control on leaf litter decomposition, however, variation in shrimp macroconsumer effects across small spatial scales or among years is not well-k

This technical commentary provides insights into a recent paper by a non-USGS group of authors who link hurricanes to mast seed production in long-leaf pine.

This paper considers resource-driven pattern formation in consumer-resource systems. Here, a planar pattern consists of many big patches, and a big patch can be regarded as combination of many patches on the plane. The consumer moves between patches asymmetrically, while the asymmetry is driven by the resource abundance. Based on experimental models with linearly-linked patches, we propose a plana

Streamflow is one of the most important variables in hydrology, but it is difficult to measure continuously. As a result, nearly all streamflow time series are estimated from rating curves that define a mathematical relationship between streamflow and some easy-to-measure proxy like water surface elevation (stage). Despite the existence of automated methods, most rating curves are still fit manual