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.
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.
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Predicting baseflow recession characteristics at ungauged stream locations using a physical and machine learning approach
Prediction of short- (i.e., aquifer is near or at saturated conditions) and long-time (i.e., aquifer is not near or at saturated conditions) baseflow recession characteristics at ungauged stream locations is a current challenge that has been primarily addressed by empirical approaches that relate these characteristics to basin attributes. However, the performance of these models is often only fair
Authors
Ken Eng, David M. Wolock, Michael Wieczorek
Assessment of riparian vegetation patterns and change downstream from Glen Canyon Dam from 2014 to 2019
Changes in riparian vegetation cover and composition occur in relation to flow regime, geomorphic template, and climate, and can have cascading effects on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Tracking such changes over time is therefore an important part of monitoring the condition and trajectory of riparian ecosystems. Maintaining diverse, self-sustaining riparian vegetation comprised of mostly na
Authors
Emily C. Palmquist, Bradley J. Butterfield, Barbara E. Ralston
Bivalve effects on the food web supporting delta smelt—A long-term study of bivalve recruitment, biomass, and grazing rate patterns with varying freshwater outflow
Phytoplankton are an important and limiting food source in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay in California. Decreasing phytoplankton biomass is one possible factor for the pelagic organism decline and the decline of the protected Hypomesus transpacificus (delta smelt). Bivalves Corbicula fluminea and Potamocorbula amurensis (hereafter C. fluminea and P. amurensis, respectively
Authors
Emily L. Zierdt Smith, Kelly H. Shrader, Janet K. Thompson, Francis Parchaso, Karen Gehrts, Elizabeth Wells
Monitoring of wave, current, and sediment dynamics along the Chincoteague living shoreline, Virginia
Nature-based features, also called living shorelines, are increasingly applied in coastal protection and restoration. However, the processes and mechanisms (feedbacks and interactions) of wave attenuation, current velocity change, and sediment deposition and erosion along the living shoreline remain unclear, thus limiting the adaptive management of living shoreline restoration projects for coastal
Authors
Hongqing Wang, Q. Chen, Nan Wang, William D. Capurso, L.M. Niemoczynski, Ling Zhu, G.A. Snedden, Kevin S. Holcomb, Bowdoin W. Lusk, Carol W. Wilson, Sean R. Cornell
Re-prioritization of the U.S. Geological Survey Federal Priority Streamgage Network, 2022
The Federal Priority Streamgage (FPS) network of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), created in 1999 as the National Streamflow Information Program, receives Congressional appropriations to support the operation of a federally-funded “backbone” network of streamflow gages across the United States that are designated to meet the “Federal needs” or priorities of the country. Anticipating the evolutio
Authors
Jonathan J.A. Dillow, Brian E. McCallum, Cory E. Angeroth
Data integration reveals dynamic and systematic patterns of breeding habitat use by a threatened shorebird
Incorporating species distributions into conservation planning has traditionally involved long-term representations of habitat use where temporal variation is averaged to reveal habitats that are most suitable across time. Advances in remote sensing and analytical tools have allowed for the integration of dynamic processes into species distribution modeling. Our objective was to develop a spatiote
Authors
Kristen S. Ellis, Michael J. Anteau, Garrett J. MacDonald, Rose J. Swift, Megan Ring, Dustin L. Toy, Mark H. Sherfy, Max Post van der Burg
Association of excessive precipitation and agricultural land use with honey bee colony performance
Context: From landscape variables to weather, multiple environmental factors affect honey bees and other pollinators. Detailed honey bee colony assessments in a variety of landscape and weather conditions offer the opportunity to develop a mechanistic understanding of how landscape composition, configuration, and weather are associated with colony nutrition, demography, and productivity.Objectives
Authors
Gabriela Quinlan, Rufus Isaacs, Clint R.V. Otto, Autumn H. Smart, Meghan O. Milbrath
Strontium isotope chronostratigraphic age of a sirenian fossil site on Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park, California
Fossils in the order Sirenia (family Dugongidae) from Santa Rosa Island, part of Channel Islands National Park in southern California, provide rare temporal and spatial links between earlier and later evolutionary forms of dugongids, and add information about their dispersal into the northeastern Pacific region. Marine sedimentary rocks containing these fossils have characteristics of both the lat
Authors
James B. Paces, Scott A. Minor, Kevin M. Schmidt, Jonathan Hoffman
Fish functional gradients along a reservoir cascade
1.The transformations of fish assemblages caused by reservoir cascades can be severe at the reach scale, but basin-scale effects are less clear. However, prevailing river concepts provide a framework for predicting basin-scale effects. 2. To determine if predictions made by the River Continuum Concept relative to the function of fish assemblages are sustained in a temperate river transformed into
Authors
Jordan C. Besson, Joshua J. Neary, Joshua D. Stafford, Corey Garland Dunn, Leandro E. Miranda
Sediment and nutrient deposition over a reconnected floodplain during large-scale river diversions, the Bonnet Carré spillway in 2011, 2016, and 2019
In hopes of reversing or slowing the decline of the river delta, water diversions have been built and planned, and natural diversions have formed and been allowed to develop along the lower Mississippi River. In addition to the possibility of building land, these diversions allow for the storage of nutrients within the deposited sediments and provide a buffer from coastal storm surge flooding. Dep
Authors
Daniel Kroes, Gregory Noe, David Ramirez, Brian Vosburg
National-scale assessment of total gaseous mercury isotopes across the United States
With the 2011 promulgation of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the successful negotiation by the United Nations Environment Program of the Minamata Convention, emissions of mercury (Hg) have declined in the United States. While the declines in atmospheric Hg concentrations in North America are encouraging, linking the declines to changing domest
Authors
Michael T. Tate, Sarah E. Janssen, Ryan F. Lepak, Laura Elizabeth Flucke, David P. Krabbenhoft
Coupling large-spatial scale larval dispersal modelling with barcoding to refine the amphi-Atlantic connectivity hypothesis in deep-sea seep mussels
In highly fragmented and relatively stable cold-seep ecosystems, species are expected to exhibit high migration rates and long-distance dispersal of long-lived pelagic larvae to maintain genetic integrity over their range. Accordingly, several species inhabiting cold seeps are widely distributed across the whole Atlantic Ocean, with low genetic divergence between metapopulations on both sides of t
Authors
Elodie Portanier, A. Nicolle, W. Rath, L. Monnet, G. Le Goff, A.-S. Le Port, C. Daguin-Thiébaut, Cheryl Morrison, M.R. Cunha, M. Betters, Craig M. Young, Cindy L. Van Dover, A. Biastoch, E. Thiébaut, Didier Jollivet