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: 171176

Interactive effects of salinity and hydrology on radial growth of bald cypress (Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich.) in coastal Louisiana, USA

Tidal freshwater forests are usually located at or above the level of mean high water. Some Louisiana coastal forests are below mean high water, especially bald cypress (Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich.) forests because flooding has increased due to the combined effects of global sea level rise and local subsidence. In addition, constructed channels from the coast inland act as conduits for saltwater
Authors
Richard Day, Andrew From, Darren Johnson, Ken Krauss

Upland Yedoma taliks are an unpredicted source of atmospheric methane

Landscape drying associated with permafrost thaw is expected to enhance microbial methane oxidation in arctic soils. Here we show that ice-rich, Yedoma permafrost deposits, comprising a disproportionately large fraction of pan-arctic soil carbon, present an alternate trajectory. Field and laboratory observations indicate that talik (perennially thawed soils in permafrost) development in unsaturate
Authors
Katey M. Walter Anthony, Nicholas Hasson, Colin W. Edgar, Orit Sivan, Effrat Eliani-Russak, Oded Bergman, Burke J. Minsley, Stephanie R. James, Neal J. Pastick, Alexander Kholodov, Sergey Zimov, Eugenie Euskirchen, Marion S. Bret-Harte, Guido Grosse, Moritz Langer, Jan Nitzbon

Discovery of giant and conventional magnetofossils bookending Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Event 2

Conventional magnetofossils are the remains of magnetotactic bacteria and giant magnetofossils are the remains of iron biomineralizing organisms that have not yet been identified. We report the oldest robust conventional and giant magnetofossil records, ~97 Ma, from marine sediments drilled in Holland Park, Virginia, USA. The Holland Park core records the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary and Oceanic-A
Authors
Courtney L. Wagner, Ioan Lascu, Jean Self-Trail, Tim Gooding, Kenneth J.T. Livi, Gianna Greger, Kristina Frank Gardner, Jody Brae Wycech, Mark F. Dreier, Tom Oliver

Biodiversity promotes urban ecosystem functioning

The proportion of people living in urban areas is growing globally. Understanding how to manage urban biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and ecosystem services is becoming more important. Biodiversity can increase ecosystem functioning in non-urban systems. However, few studies have reviewed the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in urban areas, which differ in species com
Authors
Sarah R. Weiskopf, Susannah B. Lerman, Forest Isbell, Toni Lyn Morelli

Guidelines for the use of automatic samplers in collecting surface-water quality and sediment data

The importance of fluvial systems in the transport of sediment, dissolved and suspended contaminants, nutrients, and bacteria through the environment is well established. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identifies sediment as the single most widespread water contaminant affecting the beneficial uses of the Nation’s rivers and streams. The evaluation of water-quality as it relates to
Authors
Timothy P. Wilson, Cherie V. Miller, Evan A. Lechner

Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus Rafinesque) population trends and demographics in the Upper Mississippi River System

Smallmouth buffalo (Ictiobus bubalus Rafinesque) are a large-bodied fish highly valued and commercially exploited across most of their range. Despite this, relatively little is known of their population demographics compared to other exploited species. To fill these knowledge gaps, we analyzed two independent long-term datasets (30 and 57 years, respectively) and population demographic data (age s
Authors
Kristopher A. Maxson, Levi E. Solomon, Taylor A. Bookout, Steven A. DeLain, Andrew Bartels, Melvin C. Bowler, Eric J. Gittinger, Eric N. Ratcliff, John L. West, Seth A. Love, Jason A. DeBoer, Andrya L. Whitten-Harris, Michael J. Spear, Brian Ickes, Andrew F. Casper, James T. Lamer

The dynamic feasibility of resisting (R), accepting (A), or directing (D) ecological change

Ecological transformations are occurring as a result of climate change, challenging traditional approaches to land management decision-making. The resist–accept–direct (RAD) framework helps managers consider how to respond to this challenge. We examined how the feasibility of the choices to resist, accept, and direct shifts in complex and dynamic ways through time. We considered 4 distinct types o
Authors
Amanda E. Cravens, Katherine R. Clifford, Corrine N. Knapp, William Travis

Report of the River Master of the Delaware River for the period December 1, 2015 - November 30, 2016

Executive SummaryA Decree of the Supreme Court of the United States, entered June 7, 1954 (New Jersey v. New York, 347 U.S. 995), established the position of Delaware River Master within the U.S. Geological Survey. In addition, the Decree authorizes the diversion of water from the Delaware River Basin and requires compensating releases from reservoirs owned by New York City to be made under the su
Authors
Kendra L. Russell, William J. Andrews, Vincent J. DiFrenna, J. Michael Norris, Robert R. Mason,

The 3D Elevation Program—Supporting Mississippi's economy

IntroductionMississippi has a dispersed population of nearly three million residents in an area of approximately 48,400 square miles and has a favorable climate for agriculture, with abundant precipitation and minimal extreme temperatures. The topography consists mostly of low hills and lowland plains, with the highest elevation about 800 feet above sea level. An exception is the nearly flat Missi
Authors
George Heleine

Modeling the potential habitat gained by planting sagebrush in burned landscapes

Many revegetation projects are intended to benefit wildlife species. Yet, there are few a priori evaluations that assess the potential efficiency of restoration actions in recovering wildlife habitats. We developed a spatial vegetation–habitat recovery model to gauge the degree to which field planting strategies could be expected to recover multi-factor habitat conditions for wildlife following wi
Authors
Julie A. Heinrichs, Michael O'Donnell, Elizabeth Kari Orning, David A. Pyke, Mark A. Ricca, Peter S. Coates, Cameron L. Aldridge

Probabilistic assessment of postfire debris-flow inundation in response to forecast rainfall

Communities downstream of burned steep lands face increases in debris-flow hazards due to fire effects on soil and vegetation. Rapid postfire hazard assessments have traditionally focused on quantifying spatial variations in debris-flow likelihood and volume in response to design rainstorms. However, a methodology that provides estimates of debris-flow inundation downstream of burned areas based o
Authors
A. B. Prescott, L. A. McGuire, K.-S. Jun, Katherine R. Barnhart, N. S. Oakley

Remote sensing of volcano deformation and surface change

Volcanic unrest and eruptions are associated with surface deformation and landscape change that can be detected, characterized, and tracked via remote sensing measurements. Subsurface processes, including magma accumulation, withdrawal, and transport, can cause displacements at the surface that are best tracked at subaerial volcanoes with interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and Global
Authors
M. Poland