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The USGS provides unbiased, objective, and impartial scientific information upon which our audiences, including resource managers, planners, and other entities, rely.
Browse more than 65,000 articles authored by our scientists over the past 100+ year history of the USGS and refine search by topic, location, year, and advanced search.
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Amphibian monitoring in hardwood forests: Optimizing methods for contaminant‐based compensatory restorations
Amphibians such as frogs, toads, and salamanders provide important services in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and have been proposed as useful indicators of progress and success for ecological restoration projects. Limited guidance is available, however, on the costs and benefits of different amphibian monitoring techniques that might be applied to sites restored in compensation for contaminan
Authors
Bethany K. Kunz, Hardin Waddle, Nicholas S. Green
Comparative behavioral responses of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), and silver carp (H. molitrix) to free amino acids in water
Control and elimination of invasive fishes, like carps (Order Cypriniformes), may be possible by using chemical stimuli to congregate them for removal. To this end, we tested behavioral responses of grass (Ctenopharyngodon idella), bighead (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), and silver carp (H. molitrix) to L-alanine, L-arginine, L-glutamic acid, and L-aspartic acid. In grass carp, the first three amino
Authors
Mark L. Wildhaber, Zachary D Beaman, Karlie K Ditter, Benjamin M West
Editorial: Natural methane emissions in a changing arctic – implications for climate and environment
No abstract available.
Authors
K. Andreassen, Carolyn D. Ruppel, S. Liebner, A. Hodson, J. Knies
Edge effects along roadside fuel treatments in sagebrush steppe
Increasing wildfire has motivated the construction of fuel breaks on many rangelands to improve prospects for wildfire suppression. However, the linear shape of fuel breaks greatly increases treatment perimeter: area and thus increased potential for edge effects, e.g., invasions by exotic plants. Potential for edge effects are further increased by the disturbances associated with fuel-break implem
Authors
Samuel J. Price, Matthew Germino, Chloe Rose Watt
From causes of conflict to solutions: Shifting the lens on human–carnivore coexistence research
Human-carnivore conflicts pose significant challenges in the management and conservation of carnivores across the globe. Abundant research has led to generalizable insights into the causes of such conflicts. For example, conflicts predictably occur when carnivores have access to human food resources, particularly when their natural foods are scarce. However, similar insights into the effectiveness
Authors
Kyle Artelle, Heather E. Johnson, Rebecca McCaffery, Christopher Schell, Tyus Williams, Seth Wilson
Evaluating hydrologic model performance for characterizing streamflow drought in the conterminous United States
Hydrologic models are the primary tools that are used to simulate streamflow drought and assess impacts. However, there is little consensus about how to evaluate the performance of these models, especially as hydrologic modeling moves toward larger spatial domains. This paper presents a comprehensive multi-objective approach to systematically evaluating the critical features in streamflow drought
Authors
Caelan Simeone, Sydney Foks, Erin Towler, Timothy O. Hodson, Thomas M. Over
Leveraging extensive soil, vegetation, fire, and land treatment data to inform restoration across the sagebrush biome
ContextWidespread ecological degradation has prompted calls for massive global investments in ecological restoration, yet limited resources necessitate efficient application of restoration efforts. In western North America, altered fire regimes are increasing the scale of restoration needed to preserve the sagebrush (Artemisia species) biome but prioritizing and implementing effective restoration
Authors
Bryan C. Tarbox, Adrian P. Monroe, Michelle Jeffries, Justin L. Welty, Michael S. O'Donnell, Robert Arkle, David Pilliod, Peter S. Coates, Julie A. Heinrichs, Daniel Manier, Cameron L. Aldridge
Produced water geochemistry from hydraulically stimulated Niobrara Formation petroleum wells: Origin of salinity and temporal perspectives on treatment and reuse
Produced water (i.e., a mixture of returned injection fluids and geologic formation brines) represents the largest volumetric waste stream associated with petroleum production in the United States. As such, produced water has been the focus of intense study with emphasis on understanding the geologic origin of the fluids, environmental impacts of unintended or intentional release, disposal concern
Authors
Aaron M. Jubb, Jenna L. Shelton, Bonnie McDevitt, Kaela K. Amundson, Amanda Sha Herzberg, Jessica Chenault, Andrew Laurence Masterson, Matthew S. Varonka, Glenn D. Jolly, Christina A. DeVera, Elliott Barnhart, Michael J. Wilkins, Madalyn S. Blondes
New occurrences of the rare, REE minerals daqingshanite, törnebohmite, biraite, sahamalite, and ferriperbøeite from the Sheep Creek area, Montana, USA
Over 30 small, discontinuous, tabular carbonatite bodies are located in the Sheep Creek area, Ravalli County, southwest Montana. The age and origin of these REE-Nb-rich deposits are currently being investigated. The purpose of this paper is to document the occurrence of several rare minerals, including daqingshanite, törnebohmite, biraite, sahamalite, and ferriperbøeite, in two of the carbonatite
Authors
Christopher H. Gammons, Sarah Risedorf, Gary Wyss, Heather A. Lowers
Testing spatial out-of-sample area of influence for grain forecasting models
We examine the factors that determine if a grain forecasting model fit to one region can be transferred to another region. Prior research has proposed examining the area of applicability (AoA) of a model based on structurally similar characteristics in the Earth Observation predictors and weights based on the model derived feature importance. We expand on and evaluate this approach in the context
Authors
Frank Davenport, Donghoon Lee, Shraddhanand Shukla, Greg Husak, W. Chris Funk, Michael Budde, James Rowland
Glucocorticoid and glycemic responses to immune challenge in a viviparous snake afflicted with an emerging mycosis
Disease may be both a cause and consequence of stress, and physiological responses to infectious disease may involve stress coping mechanisms that have important fitness consequences. For example, glucocorticoid and glycemic responses may affect host fitness by altering resource allocation and use in hosts, and these responses may be affected by competing stressors. To better understand the factor
Authors
Craig M. Lind, Joseph Agugliaro, Jason Ortega, Jenna N. Palmisano, Jeffrey M. Lorch, Tran Truong, Terence M. Farrell
Vortex trapping of suspended sand grains over ripples
Coastal hydrodynamics and morphodynamics integrate the effects of small-scale fluid-sediment interactions; yet, these small-scale processes are not well understood. To investigate sediment trapping by turbulent coherent structures or vortices, the transport of coarse sand over ripples was analyzed in a small-oscillatory flow tunnel with phase-separated Particle Image and Tracking Velocimetry. Resu
Authors
Donya P. Frank-Gilchrist, Allison M. Penko, Margaret L. Palmsten, Joseph Calantoni