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.
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Science Quality and Integrity
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Mission Area Publications
Mission Area Publications
We are focused on some of the most significant issues society faces, and our science is making a substantial contribution to the well-being of the Nation and the world. Learn more about the major topics our research covers and the programs focused on those topics.
Filter Total Items: 171207
Spatiotemporal variations in copper, arsenic, cadmium, and zinc concentrations in surface water, fine-grained bed sediment, and aquatic macroinvertebrates in the upper Clark Fork Basin, western Montana—A 20-year synthesis, 1996–2016
The legacy of mining-related contamination in the upper Clark Fork Basin created an extensive longitudinal gradient in metal concentrations, extending from Silver Bow Creek to Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho. Downstream metal concentrations continue to decline, but, despite such improvements, the ecological health of much of the river remains uncertain. Understanding the long-term consequences of the Cla
Authors
Sara L. Caldwell Eldridge, Michelle I. Hornberger
An algorithm for correction of atmospheric scattering dilution effects in volcanic gas emission measurements using skylight differential optical absorption spectroscopy
Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) is commonly used to measure gas emissions from volcanoes. DOAS instruments measure the absorption of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation scattered in the atmosphere by sulfur dioxide (SO2) and other trace gases contained in volcanic plumes. The standard spectral retrieval methods assume that all measured light comes from behind the plume and has pas
Authors
Bo Galle, Santiago Arellano, Mattias Johansson, Christoph Kern, Melissa Pfeffer
Slip deficit rates on southern Cascadia faults resolved with viscoelastic earthquake cycle modeling of geodetic deformation
The fore‐arc of the southern Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ), north of the Mendocino triple junction (MTJ), is home to a network of Quaternary‐active crustal faults that accumulate strain due to the interaction of the North American, Juan de Fuca (Gorda), and Pacific plates. These faults, including the Little Salmon and Mad River fault (LSF and MRF) zones, are located near the most populated parts
Authors
Kathryn Zerbe Materna, Jessica R. Murray, Fred Pollitz, Jason R. Patton
Widespread regeneration failure in ponderosa pine forests of the southwestern United States
As climate changes in coming decades, ponderosa pine forest persistence may be increasingly dictated by their regeneration. Sustained regeneration failure has been predicted for forests of the southwestern US (SWUS) even in absence of stand-replacing wildfire, but regeneration in undisturbed and lightly disturbed forests has been studied infrequently and at a limited number of locations. We charac
Authors
Matthew D. Petrie, Robert M. Hubbard, John B. Bradford, Tom E. Kolb, Adam Roy Noel, Daniel Rodolphe Schlaepfer, M.A. Bowen, L.R. Fuller, W. Keith Moser
Minimal shift of eastern wild turkey nesting phenology associated with projected climate change
Climate change may induce mismatches between wildlife reproductive phenology and temporal occurrence of resources necessary for reproductive success. Verifying and elucidating the causal mechanisms behind potential mismatches requires large-scale, longer-duration data. We used eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) nesting data collected across the southeastern U.S. over eight years
Authors
Wesley W. Boone, Christopher E. Moorman, Adam Terando, David J. Moscicki, Bret A. Collier, Michael J. Chamberlain, Krishna Pacifici
Combining expert knowledge of a threatened trout distribution with sparse occupancy data for climate-related projection
ObjectiveTo evaluate the vulnerability of Bull Trout Salvelinus confluentus to potential climate changes across its range in Oregon, we compiled disparate expert knowledge of the distribution of spawning and rearing and combined these probabilistic statements as data along with documented records of breeding and rearing in a joint occupancy model.MethodsThe joint expert knowledge–occupancy model,
Authors
Nathan Chelgren, Jason B. Dunham, Stephanie L Gunckel, David P Hockman-Wert, Chris S Allen
A prioritization protocol for coastal wetland restoration on Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi
Hawaiian coastal wetlands provide important habitat for federally endangered waterbirds and socio-cultural resources for Native Hawaiians. Currently, Hawaiian coastal wetlands are degraded by development, sedimentation, and invasive species and, thus, require restoration. Little is known about their original structure and function due to the large-scale alteration of the lowland landscape since Eu
Authors
Judith Z. Drexler, Helen Raine, James D. Jacobi, Sally House, Pūlama Lima, William Haase, Arleone Dibben-Young, Brett T. Wolfe
User engagement to improve coastal data access and delivery
Executive SummaryA priority of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program focus on coastal change hazards is to provide accessible and actionable science that meets user needs. To understand these needs, 10 virtual Coastal Data Delivery Listening Sessions were completed with 5 coastal data user types that coastal change hazards data are intended to serve: re
Authors
Amanda D. Stoltz, Amanda E. Cravens, Erika Lentz, Emily A. Himmelstoss
White-Nose Syndrome Diagnostic Laboratory Network handbook
When responding to a wildlife disease outbreak, managers depend on consistent and clear data to make decisions. However, diagnostic methods for detecting pathogens of wildlife often lack the level of procedural and interpretational standardization that occurs in the investigation of human and domestic animal diseases. This lack of standardization can hamper diagnostic reliability in two ways. Firs
Authors
Katrina E. Alger
GRiMeDB: The Global River Database Methane Database of concentrations and fluxes
Despite their small spatial extent, fluvial ecosystems play a significant role in processing and transporting carbon in aquatic networks, which results in substantial emission of methane (CH4) into the atmosphere. For this reason, considerable effort has been put into identifying patterns and drivers of CH4 concentrations in streams and rivers and estimating fluxes to the atmosphere across broad s
Authors
Emily H. Stanley, Luke C. Loken, Nora J. Casson, Samantha K. Oliver, Ryan A. Sponseller, Marcus B. Wallin, Liwei Zhang, Gerard Rocher-Ros
Cross-continental evaluation of landscape-scale drivers and their impacts to fluvial fishes: Understanding frequency and severity to improve fish conservation in Europe and the United States
Fluvial fishes are threatened globally from intensive human landscape stressors degrading aquatic ecosystems. However, impacts vary regionally, as stressors and natural environmental factors differ between ecoregions and continents. To date, a comparison of fish responses to landscape stressors over continents is lacking, limiting understanding of consistency of impacts and hampering efficiencies
Authors
Maria M. Üblacker, Dana M. Infante, Arthur R. Cooper, Wesley M. Daniel, Stefan Schmutz, Rafaela Schinegger
Differentiable modelling to unify machine learning and physical models for geosciences
Process-based modelling offers interpretability and physical consistency in many domains of geosciences but struggles to leverage large datasets efficiently. Machine-learning methods, especially deep networks, have strong predictive skills yet are unable to answer specific scientific questions. In this Perspective, we explore differentiable modelling as a pathway to dissolve the perceived barrier
Authors
Chaopeng Shen, Alison P. Appling, Pierre Gentine, Toshiyuki Bandai, Hoshin Gupta, Alexandre Tartakovsky, Marco Baity-Jesi, Fabrizio Fenicia, Daniel Kifer, Li Li, Xiaofeng Liu, Wei Ren, Yi Zheng, Ciaran Harman, Martyn Clark, Matthew Farthing, Dapeng Feng, Praveen Kumar, Doaa Aboelyazeed, Farshid Rahmani, Yalan Song, Hylke E. Beck, Tadd Bindas, Dipankar Dwivedi, Kuai Fang, Marvin Höge, Chris Rackauckas, Binayak Mohanty, Tirthankar Roy, Chonggang Xu, Kathryn Lawson