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Publications

These publications showcase the significant science conducted in our Science Centers.

Filter Total Items: 16780

Allowable take of black vultures in the eastern United States

Black vultures (Coragyps atratus) have been increasing in density and expanding their range in the eastern United States since at least the 1960s. In many areas, their densities have increased to the level where they are causing damage to property and livestock and the number of requests for allowable take permits has increased throughout these areas. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (U
Authors
Guthrie S. Zimmerman, Brian A. Millsap, Michael L. Avery, John R. Sauer, Michael C. Runge, Kenneth D. Richkus

Clade 2.3.4.4 H5 North American highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses infect, but do not cause clinical signs in American Black Ducks (Anas rubripes)

Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) from the goose/Guangdong/1996 clade 2.3.4.4 H5 lineage spread from Asia into North America in 2014, most likely by wild bird migrations. Although several variants of the virus were detected, an H5N8 and H5N2 were the most widespread in North American wild birds and domestic poultry. In early 2015, the H5N2 virus spread through commercial poultry in
Authors
Erica Spackman, Diann Prosser, Mary Pantin-Jackwood, Christopher B. Stephens, Alicia Berlin

Simulating runoff quality with the highway-runoff database and the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model

Stormwater practitioners need quantitative information about the quality and volume of highway runoff to assess and mitigate potential adverse effects of runoff on the Nation’s receiving waters. The U.S. Geological Survey developed the Highway Runoff Database (HRDB) in cooperation with the FHWA to provide practice-ready information to meet these information needs on the local or national scale. Th
Authors
Gregory E. Granato, Susan C. Jones

Landscape evolution of a fluvial sediment-rich Avicennia marina mangrove forest: Insights from seasonal and inter-annual surface-elevation dynamics

Mangrove forests are vulnerable to accelerated sea-level rise associated with climate warming because they occupy a relatively narrow zone on the mid-to-upper-intertidal flats. The fate of these ecosystems largely depends on their capacity to accrete sediment at a rate sufficient to maintain their elevation relative to sea level. We investigated the role of biophysical processes and feedbacks cont
Authors
Andrew Swales, Glen Reeve, Donald R. Cahoon, Catherine Lovelock

Demographic and genetic description of Greenland’s only indigenous Atlantic salmon Salmo salar population

A survey of the Kapisillit River system was conducted in 2005 and 2012 to study the only indigenous Atlantic salmon Salmo salar population in Greenland. Little is known about its characteristics or its relationship with other S. salar populations across the species range. Juvenile S. salar were captured in all stations surveyed within the lower river with the highest densities lower in the river a
Authors
Jo Vegar Arnekleiv, Jan Grimsrud Davidsen, Timothy F Sheehan, Sarah J Lehnert, Ian R Bradbury, L Ronning, Aslak Darre Sjursen, G Kjaerstad, Barbara A. Lubinski, Kjell J Nilssen

The impact of late Holocene land-use change, climate variability, and sea-level rise on carbon storage in tidal freshwater wetlands on the southeastern United States Coastal Plain

This study examines Holocene impacts of changes in climate, land use, and sea-level rise (SLR) on sediment accretion, carbon accumulation rates (CAR), and vegetation along a transect of tidal freshwater forested wetlands (TFFW) to oligohaline marsh along the Waccamaw River, South Carolina (4 sites) and along the Savannah River, Georgia (4 sites). We use pollen, plant macrofossils, accretion, and C
Authors
Miriam Jones, Christopher E. Bernhardt, K. W. Krauss, Gregory Noe

Development of regression equations for the estimation of flood flows at ungaged streams in Pennsylvania

Regression equations, which may be used to estimate flood flows at select annual exceedance probabilities, were developed for ungaged streams in Pennsylvania. The equations were developed using annual peak flow data through water year 2015 and basin characteristics for 285 streamflow gaging stations across Pennsylvania and surrounding states. The streamgages included active and discontinued contin
Authors
Mark A. Roland, Marla H. Stuckey

Daily estimates reveal fine-scale temporal and spatial variation in fish survival across a stream network

Environmental drivers of population vital rates, such as temperature and precipitation, often vary at short time scales, and these fluctuations can have important impacts on population dynamics. However, relationships between survival and environmental conditions are typically modeled at coarse temporal scales, ignoring the role of daily environmental variation in survival. Our goal was to determi
Authors
Evan S. Childress, Keith Nislow, Andrew R. Whiteley, Matthew O'Donnell, Benjamin Letcher

Geographic-specific capture-recapture models reveal contrasting migration and survival rates of adult horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus)

American horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) have varied migration patterns and harvesting pressure throughout their range, potentially leading to regional differences in population dynamics. Here, a multi-state mark–recapture model was used to estimate annual survival and exchange rates of adult horseshoe crabs across three geographic regions in Long Island, NY (South Shore, North Shore, and Jam
Authors
Justin J. Bopp, Matthew Sclafani, David R. Smith, Kim McKown, Rachel Sysak, Robert Cerrato

Mineral Commodity Summaries 2019

Published on an annual basis, this report is the earliest Government publication to furnish estimates covering nonfuel mineral industry data and is available at https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mcs/. Data sheets contain information on the domestic industry structure, Government programs, tariffs, and 5-year salient statistics for more than 90 individual minerals and materials.
Authors

Groundwater recharge estimates for Maine using a Soil-Water-Balance model—25-year average, range, and uncertainty, 1991 to 2015

To address the lack of information on the spatial and temporal variability of recharge to groundwater systems in Maine, a study was initiated in cooperation with the Maine Geological Survey to use the U.S. Geological Survey Soil-Water-Balance model to evaluate annual average potential recharge across the State over a 25-year period from 1991 to 2015. The Maine Soil-Water-Balance model was calibrat
Authors
Martha G. Nielsen, Stephen M. Westenbroek

Limited detection of antibodies to clade 2.3.4.4 A/Goose/Guangdong/1/1996 lineage highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza virus in North American waterfowl

During 2014, highly pathogenic (HP) influenza A viruses (IAVs) of the A/Goose/Guangdong/1/1996 lineage (GsGD-HP-H5), originating from Asia, were detected in domestic poultry and wild birds in Canada and the US. These clade 2.3.4.4 GsGD-HP-H5 viruses included reassortants possessing North American lineage gene segments; were detected in wild birds in the Pacific, Central, and Mississippi flyways; a
Authors
David E. Stallknecht, Clara Kienzle-Dean, Nick Davis-Fields, Christopher S. Jennelle, Andrew S. Bowman, Jacqueline M. Nolting, Walter Boyce, James Crum, Jefferson Santos, Justin D. Brown, Diann Prosser, Susan E. W. De La Cruz, Joshua T. Ackerman, Michael L. Casazza, Scott Krauss, Daniel Perez, Andrew M. Ramey, Rebecca L. Poulson