Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Publications

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

Kinematic evolution of a large paraglacial landslide in the Barry Arm fjord of Alaska

Our warming climate is adversely affecting cryospheric landscapes via glacial retreat, permafrost degradation, and associated slope destabilization. In Prince William Sound, Alaska, the rapid retreat of Barry Glacier has destabilized the slopes flanking the glacier, resulting in numerous landslides. The largest of these landslides (∼500 Mm3 in volume) is more than 2 km wide and has the potential t
Authors
Lauren N. Schaefer, Jeffrey A. Coe, Katreen Wikstrom Jones, Brian D. Collins, Dennis M. Staley, Michael E. West, Ezgi Karasozen, Charles Prentice-James Miles, Gabriel J. Wolken, Ronald P. Daanan, Kelli Wadsworth Baxstrom

Acclimation capacity of critical thermal maximum varies among populations: Consequences for estimates of vulnerability

Adaptive plasticity in thermal tolerance traits may buffer organisms against changing temperatures, making such responses of particular interest in the face of global climate change. Although population variation is integral to the evolvability of this trait, many studies inferring proxies of physiological vulnerability from thermal tolerance traits extrapolate data from one or a few populations t
Authors
Amanda S. Cicchino, Alisha A. Shah, Brenna R. Forester, Jason B. Dunham, N. LeRoy Poff, Cameron K. Ghalambor, W. Chris Funk

Expanding our view of the cold-water coral niche and accounting of the ecosystem services of the reef habitat

Coral reefs are iconic ecosystems that support diverse, productive communities in both shallow and deep waters. However, our incomplete knowledge of cold-water coral (CWC) niche space limits our understanding of their distribution and precludes a complete accounting of the ecosystem services they provide. Here, we present the results of recent surveys of the CWC mound province on the Blake Plateau
Authors
Erik E. Cordes, Amanda Demopoulos, Andrew J. Davies, Ryan Gasbarro, Alexandria C. Rhoads, Elizabeth Loebeker, Derek Sowers, Jason Chaytor, Cheryl Morrison, Alexis M. Weinnig, Sandra Brooke, Jay J. Lunden, Furu Mienis, Samantha B. Joye, Andrea M. Quattrini, Tracey T. Sutton, Catherine S. McFadden, Jill Bourque, Jennifer McClain Counts, Brian D. Andrews, Melissa J. Betters, Peter J. Etnoyer, Gary A. Wolff, Bernie B. Bernard, James M. Brooks, Michael K. Rasser, Caitlin Adams

Rising wildfire risk to houses in the United States, especially in grasslands and shrublands

Wildfire risks to homes are increasing, especially in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), where wildland vegetation and houses are in close proximity. Notably, we found that more houses are exposed to and destroyed by grassland and shrubland fires than by forest fires in the United States. Destruction was more likely in forest fires, but they burned less WUI. The number of houses within wildfire p
Authors
V.C. Radeloff, M.H. Mockrin, D. Helmers, A. Ron Carlson, Todd Hawbaker, S. Martinuzzi, F. Schug, P.M. Alexandre, A.H. Kramer, A.M. Pidgeon

Plant size, latitude, and phylogeny explain within-population variability in herbivory

Interactions between plants and herbivores are central in most ecosystems, but their strength is highly variable. The amount of variability within a system is thought to influence most aspects of plant-herbivore biology, from ecological stability to plant defense evolution. Our understanding of what influences variability, however, is limited by sparse data. We collected standardized surveys of he
Authors
Moria Robinson, Karen C Abbott, Warwick J. Allen, Janete Andrade, Diego Angulo, Diego Anjos, Daniel Anstett, Robert Bagchi, Sumanta Bagchi, Milton Barbosa, Sarah Barrett, Carina Baskett, Eyal Ben-Simchon, Kathryn Bloodworth, Judith L. Bronstein, Emilio Bruna, Yvonne Buckley, Karin Burghardt, Carlos Bustos-Segura, N. Ivalú Cacho, Eduardo Soares Calixto, Raquel Carvalho, Bastien Castagneyrol, Mariana Chiuffo, Damla Cinoğlu, Elizeth Cinto Mejia, Marina Cock, Rodrigo Cogni, Olivia Cope, Tatiana Cornelissen, Dezirea Cortez, David Crowder, Caroline Dallstream, Wesley Dáttilo, Julien Davis, Romina Dimarco, Haley Dole, Lee Dyer, Ikponmwosa Egbon, Afure Ejomah, Bret D Elderd, María-José Endara, Micky D. Eubanks, Susan Everingham, Keiko Farah, Rafael de Paiva Farias, Geraldo Fernandes, Marco Ferrante, Alain Finn, Grace Florjancic, Matthew L. Forister, Quinn Fox, Enric Frago, Filipe M. França, Abigail Getman-Pickering, Zoe Getman-Pickering, Ben Gooden, Martin M. Gossner, Keri Greig, Sofia Gripenberg, Ronny Groenteman, Patrick Grof-Tisza, Nora Haack, Lisa Hahn, Philip Hahn, Shiekh Marifatul Haq, Justus Hennecke, Sara Hermann, Liza M. Holeski, Matthew Hutchinson, Brian Inouye, Eleanor Jackson, Shinnosuke Kagiya, Michael Kalwajtys, Richard Karban, Rupesh Kariyat, Tamar Keasar, Monica Kersch-Becker, Heather Kharouba, Tania Kim, Duncan Kimuyu, Jennifer Kluse, Sally E. Koerner, Kimberly Komatsu, Sushmita Krishnan, Miika Laihonen, Lucas Lamelas-López, Michael LaScaleia, Nicolas Lecomte, Carlos Lehn, Xiaofei Li, Richard L Lindroth, Eric LoPresti, María Losada, Allison M Louthan, Victoria Luizzi, Joshua Lynn, Nicholas Lyon, Laís Maia, Renata Maia, Tosca Mannall, Bruce Martin, Tara Massad, Andrew McCall, Kelsey McGurrin, Andrew Merwin, Zarluis Mijango-Ramos, Charlotte Mills, Angela Moles, Christopher Moore, Colin Morrison, Moleseng Moshobane, Anne Muola, Ryosuke Nakadai, Kazuhide Nakajima, Samuel Novais, Charlee Ogbebor, Haruna Ohsaki, Vincent Pan, Nicholas Pardikes, Narayanaswamy Parthasarathy, Rohit Pawar, Quentin Paynter, Ian Pearse, Rachel Penczykowski, Adam Pepi, Cássio Pereira, Shyam Phartyal, Frida I. Piper, Katja Poveda, Elizabeth Pringle, Javier Puy, Teresa Quijano, Carolina Quintero, Sergio Rasmann, Christoph Rosche, Leah Rosenheim, Justin B. Runyon, Asaf Sadeh, Yuzu Sakata, Danielle Salcido, Cristian Salgado-Luarte, Bráulio Santos, Yuval Sapir, Yamila Sasal, Yasuhiro Sato, Manasi Sawant, Hayley Schroeder, Isabell Schumann, Michal Segoli, Hila Segre, Oren Shelef, Naoto Shinohara, Rachit Pratap Singh, David Smith, Mar Sobral, Gisela Stotz, Ayco Tack, Mandeep Tayal, John Tooker, Daniel Torrico-Bazoberry, Kévin Tougeron, Nora Underwood, Shunsuke Utsumi, Osariyekemwen Uyi, Jessica Vaca-Uribe, Anu Valtonen, Laura van Dijk, Vigdis Vandvik, Jesus Villellas, Lauren Waller, Marjorie G. Weber, William C. Wetzel, Susan Whitehead, Akira Yamawo, Samantha Yim, Luke Zehr, Zhiwei Zhong

Isotopic niche partitioning in a multi-species assemblage

Multi-species assemblages can help identify key resources in their habitat by evaluating how they are partitioning their resources. Here we used the isotopic niche of loggerhead, Kemp’s ridley, and green sea turtles to assess their ecological niche within a Gulf of Mexico bay. Additionally, we assessed temporal and size-class variation in their diets by comparing the δ13C and δ15N values over vari
Authors
Carson L. Arends, Hannah B. Vander Zanden, Margaret Lamont

Steady-state forms of channel profiles shaped by debris flow and fluvial processes

Debris flows regularly traverse bedrock channels that dissect steep landscapes, but our understanding of bedrock erosion by debris flows and their impact on steepland morphology is still rudimentary. Quantitative models of steep bedrock channel networks are based on geomorphic transport laws designed to represent erosion by water-dominated flows. To quantify the impact of debris flow erosion on st
Authors
Luke A. McGuire, Scott W. McCoy, Odin Marc, William Struble, Katherine R. Barnhart

Expanding our view of the cold-water coral niche and accounting of the ecosystem services of the reef habitat

Coral reefs are iconic ecosystems that support diverse, productive communities in both shallow and deep waters. However, our incomplete knowledge of cold-water coral (CWC) niche space limits our understanding of their distribution and precludes a complete accounting of the ecosystem services they provide. Here, we present the results of recent surveys of the CWC mound province on the Blake Plateau
Authors
Erick E. Cordes, Amanda Demopoulos, Andrew Davies, Ryan Gasbarro, Alexandria Rhoads, Elizabeth Lobecker, Dereck Sowers, Jason Chaytor, Cheryl Morrison, Alexis Marie Weinnig, Sandra Brooke, Jay J. Lunden, Furu Mienis, Samantha B. Joye, Andrea M. Quattrini, Tracey Sutton, Catherine McFadden, Jill Bourque, Jennifer McClain Counts, Brian D. Andrews, Melissa Betters, Peter Etnoyer, Gary Wolff, Bernie Bernard, James Brooks, Michael Rasser, Caitlin Adams

Assessing the added value of antecedent streamflow alteration information in modeling stream biological condition

In stream systems, disentangling relationships between biology and flow and subsequent prediction of these relationships to unsampled streams is a common objective of large-scale ecological modeling. Often, streamflow metrics are derived from aggregating continuous streamflow records available at a subset of stream gages into long-term flow regime descriptors. Despite demonstrated value, shortcomi
Authors
Taylor E Woods, Ken Eng, Daren Carlisle, Matthew Joseph Cashman, Michael Meador, Karen R. Ryberg, Kelly O. Maloney

Considerations for colorblind individuals on selecting colorimetric or fluorescent dye assay outcomes

A disadvantage of colorimetric detection in nucleic acid amplification assays is the possibility that a colorblind individual may interpret colors differently than observers with full-color vision. Using an isothermal amplification assay, the ability of colorblind individuals to distinguish between positive and negative results for four dyes was tested. Five individuals with self-reported colorbli
Authors
Kirstyn Loyva, Erik K. Hofmeister, Fiona Georgousi, Constance Roderick, Rebecca A. Cole

Rethinking cost-share programs in consideration of economic equity: A case study of wildfire risk mitigation assistance for private landowners

Public agencies and organizations often deliver financial assistance through cost sharing, in which recipients contribute some portion toward total costs. However, cost sharing might raise equity concerns if it reduces participation among populations with lower incomes. Here, we revisit a past study using a richer dataset (n=1,689) to assess whether stated income levels affect survey respondents'
Authors
James Meldrum, Patricia A. Champ, Hannah Brenkert-Smith, Christopher M. Barth, Abby Elizabeth McConnell, Carolyn Wagner, Colleen Donovan

Predicting daily river chlorophyll concentrations at a continental scale

Eutrophication is one of the largest threats to aquatic ecosystems and chlorophyll a measurements are relevant indicators of trophic state and algal abundance. Many studies have modeled chlorophyll a in rivers but model development and testing has largely occurred at individual sites which hampers creating generalized models capable of making broad-scale predictions. To address this gap, we compil
Authors
Philip Savoy, Judson Harvey