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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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Groundwater sustainability and land subsidence in California’s Central Valley
The Central Valley of California is one of the most prolific agricultural regions in the world. Agriculture is reliant on the conjunctive use of surface-water and groundwater. The lack of available surface-water and land-use changes have led to pumping-induced groundwater-level and storage declines, land subsidence, changes to streamflow and the environment, and the degradation of water quality. A
Authors
Claudia C. Faunt, Jonathan A. Traum, Scott E. Boyce, Whitney A. Seymour, Elizabeth Rae Jachens, Justin T. Brandt, Michelle Sneed, Sandra Bond, Marina Marcelli
The influence of channel morphology and hydraulic complexity on larval pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) drift and dispersal dynamics in the Fort Peck Segment, Upper Missouri River: Insights from particle tracking simulations
Longitudinal dispersal of migratory fish species can be interrupted by factors that fragment rivers, such as dams and reservoirs with incompatible habitats, and indirect alterations to variables, such as water temperature or turbidity. The endangered pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) population in the Upper Missouri River Basin in North Dakota and Montana is an example of such fragmentation a
Authors
Bruce Call, Richard R. McDonald, Susannah O. Erwin, R. B. Jacobson
Evaluation of streamflow predictions from LSTM models in water- and energy-limited regions in the United States
The application of Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models for streamflow predictions has been an area of rapid development, supported by advancements in computing technology, increasing availability of spatiotemporal data, and availability of historical data that allows for training data-driven LSTM models. Several studies have focused on improving the performance of LSTM models; however, few studie
Authors
Kul Bikram Khand, Gabriel B. Senay
Reproduction of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) in the Maumee River, Ohio: Part 1—Spawning area identification using bidirectional drift modeling
Control of invasive grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) populations in the Western Lake Erie Basin merits adaptive management guided by the best available science. Presently (2024), capture of mature grass carp in rivers during spawning season is most efficient, so knowing when and where grass carp are spawning is essential information for natural resource agencies. Using bidirectional drift mode
Authors
P. Ryan Jackson, Charles V. Cigrand, Patrick M. Kočovský, Nicole R. King, Alan Kasprak, Evan M. Lindroth, Henry F. Doyle, Song S. Qian, Christine M. Mayer
Network connectivity contributes to native small-bodied fish assemblages in the upper Mississippi River system
Effective management and conservation of fishes requires understanding habitat use across multiple life stages while ensuring necessary habitats are both available and accessible. Tributary habitats may play an important role in recruitment and dispersal of fishes in anthropogenically modified rivers such as the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers of the Midwest U.S.A. Identifying source locations tha
Authors
Shaley A Valentine, Kristen L. Bouska, Gregory W. Whitledge
Key breeding habitats of threatened golden eagles across Eastern Canada identified using a multi-level, multi-scale habitat selection approach
ContextIn a conservation context, identifying key habitats suitable for reproduction, foraging, or survival is a useful tool, yet challenging for species with large geographic distributions and/or living in remote regions.ObjectivesThe objective of this study is to identify selected habitats at multiple levels and scales of the threatened eastern North American population of golden eagles (Aquila
Authors
Laurie D Maynard, Jerome Lemaître, Jean-Francois Therrien, Tricia A. Miller, Todd E. Katzner, Scott Somershoe, Cooper. Jeff, Robert Sargent, Nicolas Lecomte
The influence of time, tide, and place on fine scale nekton distribution: Insights from the San Francisco Estuary
The location of estuarine organisms varies based on geophysical cycles and environmental conditions, which can strongly bias understanding of organism abundance and distribution. In the San Francisco Estuary, California, extensive monitoring surveys have provided insight into the life history and ecology of certain commercially important or legislatively protected fish species. However, there rema
Authors
Matthew J. Young, Frederick V. Feyrer, Jason L. Hassrick, Shawn Acuna, David E. Ayers, John M. Donovan, Lenny Grimaldo
Developing transmissible vaccines for animal infections
Many emerging and reemerging pathogens originate from wildlife, but nearly all wild species are unreachable using conventional vaccination, which requires capture of and vaccine administration to individual animals. By enabling immunization at scales sufficient to interrupt pathogen transmission, transmissible vaccines (TVs) that spread themselves through wildlife populations by infectious process
Authors
Daniel G. Streicker, Megan E. Griffiths, Rustom Antia, Laura M. Bergner, Peter Bowman, Maria Vitoria dos Santos de Moraes, Kevin Esvelt, Mike Famulare, Amy T. Gilbert, Biao He, Michael A. Jarvis, David A. Kennedy, Jennifer Kuzma, Carolyne Nasimiyu Wanyonyi, Christopher Remien, Kyle Rosenke, Tonie E. Rocke, Courtney Schreiner, Justin Sheen, David Simons, Ivet A. Yordanova, James J. Bull, Scott L. Nuismer
Acute toxicity of the lampricide 4-nitro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenol to the Mussel (Obovaria subrotunda), its host (Percina maculata), and a surrogate mussel species (Obovaria olivaria)
The risk of lampricide applications (such as 4-nitro-3-[trifluoromethyl]phenol [TFM]) to nontarget fauna continues to be a concern within the Great Lakes Fishery Commission Sea Lamprey Control Program, especially among imperiled aquatic species—such as native freshwater mussels. The Grand River (Ohio, USA) is routinely treated for larval sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus), and this river contains p
Authors
Teresa J. Newton, Nicholas A. Schloesser, Cheryl A. Kaye, Chad K. Andresen, Michael A. Boogaard, Christina M. Carter, Ryan Jay Ellingson, Courtney A Kirkeeng, Justin Schueller
Comparison of two methods to detect the northwestern pond turtle (Actinemys marmorata) and the invasive American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) in interior northern California
Knowledge about the distributions of species and the variables influencing their occurrence is important for their management and conservation, but factors affecting occurrence can vary across the range of a species. Northwestern pond turtles (Actinemys marmorata) are widespread generalist turtles, but are nonetheless of conservation concern throughout their range. To better understand the distrib
Authors
Brian J. Halstead, Patrick M. Kleeman, Caren S. Goldberg, Jonathan P. Rose
Biological soil crusts are more prevalent in warmer and drier environments within the Great Basin ecoregion: Implications for managing annual grass invasion
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) can thrive under environmental conditions that are stressful for vascular plants such as high temperatures and/or extremely low moisture availability. In these settings, and in the absence of disturbance, cover of biocrusts commonly exceeds cover of vascular plants. Arid landscapes are also typically slow to recover from disturbance and prone to altered vegetatio
Authors
Lea A. Condon, John B. Bradford, Peter S. Coates
Evolving wildlife management cultures of governance through Indigenous Knowledges and perspectives
Within governance agencies, academia, and communities alike, there are increasing calls to recognize the value and importance of culture within social-ecological systems and to better implement Indigenous sciences in research, policy, and management. Efforts thus far have raised questions about the best ethical practices to do so. Engaging with plural worldviews and perspectives on their own terms
Authors
Jonathan Fisk, Kirsten Leong, Richard Eugene Waggaman Berl, Jonathan W. Long, Adam Landon, Melinda Adams, Don L. Hankins, Christopher J. Williams, Frank K. Lake, Jonathan Salerno