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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.

Filter Total Items: 171178

The 3D Elevation Program—Supporting Missouri’s economy

IntroductionBecause of its geography, Missouri is frequently subject to natural disasters. Ice storms, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and flooding are all common occurrences. Since 1990, Missouri has received 40 Federal major disaster declarations. Floods and droughts severely affect the State’s agriculture, which is a leading industry. Another potential major hazard is the New Madrid seismic zo
Authors
David Nail

Machine-learning predictions of groundwater specific conductance in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, south-central United States, with evaluation of regional geophysical aerial electromagnetic data as explanatory variables

The Mississippi Alluvial Plain, located in the south-central United States, is undergoing long-term groundwater-level declines within the surficial Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer (hereinafter referred to as “alluvial aquifer”), which has raised concerns about future groundwater availability. In some parts of the alluvial aquifer, groundwater availability for common uses such as irrigati
Authors
Courtney D. Killian, Katherine J. Knierim

Toxicity of wildland fire retardants to rainbow trout in short exposures

Long-term wildland fire retardants are one important tool used to control and suppress wildfires. During suppression activities, these retardants may enter waterbodies; thus, there is a need to understand their potential effects to aquatic biota. We investigated the effect of three current-use wildland fire retardants to juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) survival in short exposures more
Authors
Holly J. Puglis, Michael G. Iacchetta

Crustal block-controlled contrasts in deformation, uplift, and exhumation in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California, USA, imaged through apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronology and 3-D geological modeling

Deformation along strike-slip plate margins often accumulates within structurally partitioned and rheologically heterogeneous crustal blocks within the plate boundary. In these cases, contrasts in the physical properties and state of juxtaposed crustal blocks may play an important role in accommodation of deformation. Near the San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA, the Pacific−North American pla
Authors
Curtis William Baden, David L. Shuster, Jeremy H. Hourigan, Jared T. Gooley, Melanie Cahill, George E. Hilley

Geothermal play fairway analysis, part 1: Example from the Snake River Plain, Idaho

The Snake River Plain (SRP) volcanic province overlies the track of the Yellowstone hotspot, a thermal anomaly that extends deep into the mantle. Most of the area is underlain by a basaltic volcanic province that overlies a mid-crustal intrusive complex, which in turn provides the long-term heat flux needed to sustain geothermal systems. Previous studies have identified several known geothermal re
Authors
John W. Shervais, Jacob DeAngelo, Jonathan M.G. Glen, Dennis L. Nielson, Sabodh Garg, Patrick Dobson, Erika Gasperikova, Eric Sonnenthal, Lee M. Liberty, Dennis L. Newell, Drew Lorenz Siler, James P. Evans

Less is more: Less herbicide does more when biological control is present in Pontederia crassipes

An experiment along with simulation modeling was applied to study the combinations of herbicide treatment and biological control that best limit invasive water hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes, formerly Eichhornia crassipes) in freshwater aquatic systems. The experiment consisted of 14 different treatments of P. crassipes in 1.67 m2 outdoor tank mesocosms. Seven treatments were with and seven were w
Authors
Linhao Xu, Ashley B.C. Goode, Philip W. Tipping, Melissa C. Smith, Lyn A. Gettys, Brittany K. Knowles, Eileen Pokorny, Luz Salinas, Don DeAngelis

System characterization report on the Pléiades Neo Imager

Executive SummaryThis report addresses system characterization of the Pléiades Neo satellite and is part of a series of system characterization reports produced and delivered by the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Cal/Val Center of Excellence. These reports present and detail the methodology and procedures for characterization; present technical and operational infor
Authors
Simon J. Cantrell, Aparajithan Sampath, James C. Vrabel, Paul Bresnahan, Cody Anderson, Minsu Kim, Seonkyung Park

Survival implications of diversion entrainment for outmigrating juvenile Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead (O. mykiss)

Efforts to ameliorate negative effects of diversion dams on aquatic species of concern are important in rivers where water withdrawal supports agricultural economies and are likely to become increasingly important with impending climate change. A multiyear study was conducted to evaluate the survival consequences of diversion dam passage for juvenile Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and s
Authors
Tobias Kock, Scott D. Evans, Russell Perry, Patrick A. Monk, Michael S. Porter, Amy Hansen, Adam Pope

Investigating permafrost carbon dynamics in Alaska with artificial intelligence

Positive feedbacks between permafrost degradation and the release of soil carbon into the atmosphere impact land–atmosphere interactions, disrupt the global carbon cycle, and accelerate climate change. The widespread distribution of thawing permafrost is causing a cascade of geophysical and biochemical disturbances with global impacts. Currently, few earth system models account for permafrost carb
Authors
Bradley Gay, Neal Pastick, Andreas Zufle, Amanda Armstrong, Kimberly Miner, J.J. Qu

Climate change and collapsing thermal niches of desert reptiles and amphibians: Assisted migration and acclimation rescue from extirpation

Recent climate change should result in expansion of species to northern or high elevation range margins, and contraction at southern and low elevation margins in the northern hemisphere, because of local extirpations or range shifts or both. We combined museum occurrence records from both the continental U.S. and Mexico with a new eco-physiological model of extinction developed for lizard families
Authors
Bary Sinervo, Rafael A. Lara Reséndiz, Donald B. Miles, Jeffrey E. Lovich, Philip C. Rosen, Héctor Gadsden, Gamaliel Casteñada Gaytán, Patricia Galina Tessaro, Victor H. Luja, Raymond B. Huey, Amy V. Whipple, Víctor Sánchez Cordero, Jason B. Rohr, Gabriel Caetano, Juan C. Santos, Jr. Sites, Fausto R. Méndez de la Cruz

Springing forward: Migrating songbirds catch up with the start of spring in North America

In temperate regions, the annual pattern of spring onset can be envisioned as a ‘green wave’ of emerging vegetation that moves across continents from low to high latitudes, signifying increasing food availability for consumers.Many herbivorous migrants ‘surf’ such resource waves, timing their movements to exploit peak vegetation resources in early spring. Although less well studied at the individu
Authors
Claire E. Nemes, Peter P. Marra, Theodore J. Zenzal, Samantha A. Collins, Bryant C. Dossman, Alexander R. Gerson, Camila Gómez, Ana M. González, Mariamar Gutierrez Ramirez, Sarah A. Hamer, Joseph Marty, Phillip L. Vasseur, Emily B. Cohen

Editorial: Rapid, reproducible, and robust environmental modeling for decision support: worked examples and open-source software tools

No abstract available.
Authors
Jeremy White, Michael N. Fienen, Catherine R. Moore, Anneli Guthke