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
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.
Filter Total Items: 171158
Effects of feeding and habitat on resting metabolic rates of the Pacific walrus
Arctic marine mammals live in a rapidly changing environment due to the amplified effects of global warming. Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) have responded to declines in Arctic sea-ice extent by increasingly hauling out on land farther from their benthic foraging habitat. Energy models can be useful for better understanding the potential implications of changes in behavior on body
Authors
Karyn D. Rode, Joan Rocabert, Alicia Borque-Espinosa, Diana Ferrero-Fernández, Andreas Fahlman
Monitoring long-term changes in forage fish distribution, abundance and body condition in Prince William Sound
Identifying drivers of change in forage fish populations is key to understanding recovery potential for piscivorous species injured by the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and ecosystem response to natural and anthropogenic perturbations. Forage fish are small pelagic schooling fish such as Pacific capelin (Mallotus catervarius), Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes personatus), Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii),
Authors
Mayumi L. Arimitsu, John F. Piatt, Scott Hatch, Caitlin Elizabeth Marsteller, Daniel Stephen Donnelly, Shannon Whelan
Wind River Subbasin Restoration Annual Report of USGS Activities January 2021 through December 2022
We sampled juvenile wild Steelhead Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss in headwater streams of the Wind River, WA, to characterize population attributes and investigate life-history metrics, particularly migratory patterns, and early life-stage survival. We used passive integrated transponder (PIT) tagging and a series of instream PIT-tag interrogation systems (PTISs) to track juveniles and adults. The Wind
Authors
Ian Jezorek
Support for management actions to protect night sky quality: Insights from visitors to state and national park units in the U.S.
Light pollution is a global phenomenon where anthropogenic light sources continue to grow unabated, affecting both social and ecological systems. This is leaving parks and protected areas as some of the last vestiges of naturally dark environments for protecting views of the night sky. Yet, even parks and protected areas have outdoor lighting. Alternative lighting practices are needed to reduce or
Authors
J. Adam Beeco, Emily J. Wilkins, Anna B. Miller, Chase C. Lamborn, Sharolyn Anderson, Zachary D. Miller, Jordan W. Smith
Quantifying site effects and their influence on earthquake source parameter estimations using a dense array in Oklahoma
We investigate the effects of site response on source parameter estimates using earthquakes recorded by the LArge-n Seismic Survey in Oklahoma (LASSO). While it is well known that near-surface unconsolidated sediments can cause an apparent breakdown of earthquake self-similarity, the influence of laterally varying site conditions remains unclear. We analyze site conditions across the 1825-station
Authors
Hilary Chang, Rachel E. Abercrombie, Nori Nakata, Colin Pennington, Kilian B. Kemna, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Rebecca M. Harrington
Scanning electron microscopic evaluation of broad ion beam milling effects to sedimentary organic matter: Sputter-induced artifacts or naturally occurring porosity?
Research examining organic-matter hosted porosity has significantly increased during the last decade due to greater focus on understanding hydrocarbon migration and storage in source-rock reservoirs, and technological advances in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) capabilities. The examination of nanometer-scale organic-matter hosted porosity by SEM requires the preparation of exceptionally flat g
Authors
Brett J. Valentine, Paul C. Hackley
Restoration of Gavia immer (common loon) in Minnesota—2022 annual report
The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon mobile drilling platform on April 20, 2010, caused a massive oil spill and injury to natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico. Gavia immer (common loon) were negatively affected from the spill. The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group funded the project “Restoration of Common Loons in Minnesota” to restore common loons lost to the spill. Here, we report on
Authors
William S. Beatty, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Robert Rabasco, Spencer Rettler, Elizabeth Rasmussen, Kevin P. Kenow, Brian R. Gray, Steven Yang, Kelly Amoth
Estimating fat content in barred owls (Strix varia) with predictive models developed from direct measures of proximate body composition
Body condition indices and related metrics can help assess habitat quality and other ecological processes, and ideally, these metrics are based on measures of lipids directly extracted from the species of interest. In recent decades, barred owls (Strix varia) have become a species of conservation concern as they invaded older forests of the US Pacific Northwest, and caused population declines of t
Authors
Ryan C. Baumbusch, Katie Dugger, David Wiens
Reanalysis ignores pertinent data, includes inappropriate observations, and disregards realities of applied ecology: Response to Huso and Dalthorp (2023)
1) We recently demonstrated efficacy of automated curtailment of wind turbines in reducing fatalities of eagles at a study site in Wyoming, USA. Huso and Dalthorp criticize our work, asserting that there are several ‘major errors’ that render our previous work as providing ‘no meaningful support’ for automated curtailment. As we show here, our data do indeed provide support for the efficacy of aut
Authors
Christopher J.W. McClure, Brian W. Rolek, Leah Dunn, Jennifer D. McCabe, Luke Martinson, Todd E. Katzner
Reanalysis indicates little evidence of reduction in eagle mortality rate by automated curtailment of wind turbines
Unintended consequences of renewable energy development include collision-caused deaths of birds and bats. Energy companies may risk prosecution if protected species are among the casualties. Shutting down turbines during high collision-risk conditions could reduce mortality rates, and several companies are developing systems to identify such conditions.A recent peer-reviewed article published in
Authors
Manuela Huso, Daniel Dalthorp
Roles of regional structures and country-rock facies in defining mineral belts in central Idaho mineral province with detail for Yellow Pine and Thunder Mountain mining districts
The central Idaho metallogenic province hosts numerous mineral deposit types. These include Late Cretaceous precious-polymetallic vein deposits, amagmatic Paleocene–Eocene breccia-hosted gold-tungsten-antimony deposits, and Eocene mercury deposits in metasedimentary roof pendants and in Late Cretaceous granitoids. Hot-springs gold deposits in Eocene volcanic rocks are also included in the central
Authors
Karen Lund, John N. Aleinikoff, Christopher Holm-Denoma
Improvements and evaluation of the agro-hydrologic VegET model for large-area water budget analysis and drought monitoring
We enhanced the agro-hydrologic VegET model to include snow accumulation and melt processes and the separation of runoff into surface runoff and deep drainage. Driven by global weather datasets and parameterized by land surface phenology (LSP), the enhanced VegET model was implemented in the cloud to simulate daily soil moisture (SM), actual evapotranspiration (ETa), and runoff (R) for the conterm
Authors
Gabriel B. Senay, Stefanie Kagone, Gabriel Edwin Lee Parrish, Kul Bikram Khand, Olena Boiko, Naga Manohar Velpuri