Publications
These publications showcase the significant science conducted in our Science Centers.
Filter Total Items: 16779
Observations on long-term memory in honey bees
No abstract available.
Authors
Nimish B. Vyas, Amanda D. Plunkett, Diana Baker
Survival of Laysan Teal Anas laysanensis differs among island populations: Role of chronic avian botulism
Monitoring demographic response over time is valuable for understanding population dynamics of endangered species. We quantified the variation in survival patterns for three small isolated island populations of endangered waterfowl in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Laysan Teal Anas laysanensis were individually marked and the fate of 1,150 individuals were followed from different cohorts among the two
Authors
Michelle H Reynolds, Jeffrey Hatfield, Karen Courtot, Cynthia Vanderlip
Limited mantle hydration by bending faults at the Middle America Trench
Seismic anisotropy measurements show that upper mantle hydration at the Middle America Trench (MAT) is limited to serpentinization and/or water in fault zones, rather than distributed uniformly. Subduction of hydrated oceanic lithosphere recycles water back into the deep mantle, drives arc volcanism, and affects seismicity at subduction zones. Constraining the extent of upper mantle hydration is a
Authors
Nathaniel C. Miller, Danile Lizarralde, John A. Collins, Steven Holbrook, Harm van Avendonk
Heed the data gap: Guidelines for using incomplete datasets in annual stream temperature analyses
Stream temperature data are useful for deciphering watershed processes important for aquatic ecosystems. Accurately extracting signal trends from stream temperature is essential for predicting responses of environmental and ecological indicators to change. Missing data periods are common for various reasons, and pose a challenge for scientists using temperature signal analysis to support stream re
Authors
Zachary C. Johnson, Brittany G. Johnson, Martin A. Briggs, Craig D. Snyder, Nathaniel P. Hitt, Warren Devine
Investigating the effects of broad ion beam milling to sedimentary organic matter: Surface flattening or heat-induced aromatization and condensation?
Previous work has proposed transfer of kinetic heat energy from low-energy broad ion beam (BIB) milling causes thermal alteration of sedimentary organic matter, resulting in increases of organic matter reflectance. Whereas, other studies have suggested the organic matter reflectance increase from BIB milling is due to decreased surface roughness. To test if reflectance increases to sedimentary org
Authors
Paul C. Hackley, Aaron M. Jubb, Brett J. Valentine, Javin J. Hatcherian, Jing-Jiang Yu, William K. Podrazky
Research priorities for migratory birds under climate change—A qualitative value of information assessment
The mission of the U.S. Geological Survey National Climate Adaptation Science Center is to provide actionable, management-relevant research on climate change effects on ecosystems and wildlife to U.S. Department of the Interior bureaus. Providing this kind of useful scientific information requires understanding how natural-resource managers make decisions and identifying research priorities that s
Authors
Madeleine A. Rubenstein, Clark S. Rushing, James E. Lyons, Michael C. Runge
A Bayesian framework for assessing extinction risk based on ordinal categories of population condition and projected landscape change
Many at-risk species lack standardized surveys across their range or quantitative data capable of detecting demographic trends. As a result, extinction risk assessments often rely on ordinal categories of risk based on explicit criteria or expert elicitation. This study demonstrates a Bayesian approach to assessing extinction risk based on this common data structure, using three freshwater mussel
Authors
Daniel Bruce Fitzgerald, Andrew R Henderson, Kelly O. Maloney, Mary Freeman, John A. Young, Amanda E. Rosenberger, David C. Kazyak, David R. Smith
Soil organic carbon development and turnover in natural and disturbed salt marsh environments
Salt marsh survival with sea‐level rise (SLR) increasingly relies on soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation and preservation. Using a novel combination of geochemical approaches, we characterized fine SOC (≤1 mm) supporting marsh elevation maintenance. Overlaying thermal reactivity, source (δ13C), and age (F14C) information demonstrates several processes contributing to soil development: marsh gra
Authors
Sheron Luk, Katherine Todd-Brown, Meagan J. Eagle, Ann McNichol, Jonathan Sanderman, Kelsey Gosselin, Amanda C. Spivak
Spatial capture–recapture with random thinning for unidentified encounters
Spatial capture–recapture (SCR) models have increasingly been used as a basis for combining capture–recapture data types with variable levels of individual identity information to estimate population density and other demographic parameters. Recent examples are the unmarked SCR (or spatial count model), where no individual identities are available and spatial mark–resight (SMR) where individual id
Authors
José Jiménez, Ben Augustine, Daniel W. Linden, Richard B. Chandler, Andy Royle
Investigation of U.S. Foreign Reliance on Critical Minerals—U.S. Geological Survey technical input document in response to Executive Order No. 13953 Signed September 30, 2020
Over the past few decades (1990–2019), the United States has become reliant on foreign sources to meet domestic demand for a large and growing number of mineral commodities. In combination with recent trends towards progressively concentrated supply of mineral commodities from a limited number of countries, this heightened import reliance may increase the risk to the United States economy and nati
Authors
Nedal T. Nassar, Elisa Alonso, Jaime L. Brainard
Evidence that watershed nutrient management practices effectively reduce estrogens in environmental waters
We evaluate the impacts of different nutrient management strategies on the potential for co-managing estrogens and nutrients in environmental waters of the Potomac watershed of the Chesapeake Bay. These potential co-management approaches represent agricultural and urban runoff, wastewater treatment plant effluent, and combined sewer overflow replacements. Twelve estrogenic compounds and their meta
Authors
Shuiwang Duan, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Katia Noguera-Oviedo, Sujay S. Kaushal, Erik Rosenfeld, Diana Aga, Sudhir Murthy
Quality of data from the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Network for water years 2013–17
Water samples from 122 sites in the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Network were collected in 2013–17 to document ambient water-quality conditions in surface water of the United States and to determine status and trends of loads and concentrations for nutrients, contaminants, and sediment to estuaries and streams. Quality-control (QC) samples collected in the field with environmental
Authors
Laura Medalie, Laura M. Bexfield