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.
Filter Total Items: 171780
Building a library of source samples for sediment fingerprinting – Potential and proof of concept
PurposeSediment fingerprinting of fluvial targets has proven useful to guide conservation management and prioritize sediment sources for Federal and State supported programs in the United States. However, the collection and analysis of source samples can make these studies unaffordable, especially when needed for multiple drainage basins. We investigate the potential use of source samples from a b
Authors
Tanja N. Williamson, Faith Fitzpatrick, Rebecca Kreiling
Waterfowl recently infected with low pathogenic avian influenza exhibit reduced local movement and delayed migration
Understanding relationships between infection and wildlife movement patterns is important for predicting pathogen spread, especially for multispecies pathogens and those that can spread to humans and domestic animals, such as avian influenza viruses (AIVs). Although infection with low pathogenic AIVs is generally considered asymptomatic in wild birds, prior work has shown that influenza-infected b
Authors
Claire S. Teitelbaum, Michael L. Casazza, Fiona McDuie, Susan E. W. De La Cruz, Cory T. Overton, Laurie Anne Hall, Elliott Matchett, Josh T. Ackerman, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Andrew M. Ramey, Diann Prosser
Does post-fire recovery of native grasses across abiotic-stress and invasive-grass gradients match theoretical predictions, in sagebrush steppe?
Interactions among species can strongly affect how plant communities reassemble after disturbances, and variability among native and invasive species across environmental gradients must be known in order to manage plant-community recovery. The stress-gradient hypothesis (SGH) predicts species interactions will be more positive in abiotically stressful conditions and conversely, more negative in be
Authors
Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew Germino
Analysis of the United States documented unplugged orphaned oil and gas well dataset
In coordination with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and in response to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) produced a documented unplugged orphaned oil and gas well dataset (called the DOW dataset hereafter) that contains the location and status of these wells nationwide as of 2022. The DOW dataset includes 117,672 wells across 27 states. The data
Authors
Matthew D. Merrill, Claire A. Grove, Nicholas J. Gianoutsos, Philip A. Freeman
Metagenomic mapping of cyanobacteria and potential cyanotoxin producing taxa in large rivers of the United States
Cyanobacteria and cyanotoxin producing cyanobacterial blooms are a trending focus of current research. Many studies focus on bloom events in lentic environments such as lakes or ponds. Comparatively few studies have explored lotic environments and fewer still have examined the cyanobacterial communities and potential cyanotoxin producers during ambient, non-bloom conditions. Here we used a metagen
Authors
D.M. Linz, N. Sienkiewicz, I. Struewing, Erin A. Stelzer, Jennifer L. Graham, Jingrang Lu
A framework for prioritizing contaminants in retrospective ecological assessments: Application in the Milwaukee Estuary (Milwaukee, WI)
Watersheds are subjected to diverse anthropogenic inputs, exposing aquatic biota to a wide range of chemicals. Detection of multiple, different chemicals can challenge natural resource managers who often have to determine where to allocate potentially limited resources. Here, we describe a weight-of-evidence framework for retrospectively prioritizing aquatic contaminants. To demonstrate framework
Authors
Erin M Maloney, Daniel L. Villeneuve, Brett R Blackewell, Kelsey Vitense, Steven R. Corsi, Matthew A. Pronschinske, Kathleen Jensen, Gerald T. Ankley
Understanding ecological response to physical characteristics in side channels of a large floodplain-river ecosystem
Side channels in large floodplain rivers serve a variety of important ecological roles, particularly in reaches where habitat conditions have been degraded or diminished. We developed hypotheses regarding side channel ecological structure whereby we expected species richness of young-of-year fishes to generally be higher in shallower, more physically heterogeneous side channels with lower velociti
Authors
Kristen L. Bouska, Molly Sobotka, Todd Slack, Heather Theel
Declines in prey production during the collapse of a tailwater Rainbow Trout population are associated with changing reservoir conditions
ObjectiveUnderstanding how energy moves through food webs and limits productivity at various trophic levels is a central question in aquatic ecology and can provide insight into drivers of fish population dynamics since many fish populations are food limited. In this study, we seek to better understand what factors drove a decline of >85% in the number of Rainbow TroutOncorhynchus mykiss found in
Authors
Michael D. Yard, Charles Yackulic, Josh Korman, Michael Dodrill, Bridget Deemer
Sediment gravity flow frequency offshore central California diminished significantly following the Last Glacial Maximum
A high-resolution multibeam survey from a portion of the San Simeon Channel (offshore Morro Bay, California) captured a zone of recurring troughs and ridges adjacent to prominent submarine meander bends. Through an integrated study using surveying data, sediment core analysis, radiocarbon dating, and stable isotope measurements, we hypothesize that turbidity current event frequency was higher duri
Authors
Stephen C. Dobbs, Charles K. Paull, Eve M. Lundsten, Roberto Gwiazda, David W. Caress, Mary McGann, Marianne M. Coholich, Maureen A.L. Walton, Nora Maria Nieminski, Timothy McHargue, Steven A. Graham
Survival and establishment of captive-reared and translocated giant gartersnakes after release
Many imperiled species face increasing extinction risk that requires interventional management like translocation or captive rearing. The use of translocations to successfully restore or create populations requires that animals survive at recipient sites, information that is often lacking for imperiled species and that can be risky to acquire if not obtained before a species has dwindled in number
Authors
Allison M. Nguyen, Brian D Todd, Brian J. Halstead
Groundwater recharge in northern New England: Meteorological drivers and relations with low streamflow
Meteorological drivers of groundwater recharge for spring (February–June), fall (October–January), and recharge-year (October–June) recharge seasons were evaluated for northern New England and upstate New York from 1989 to 2018. Monthly groundwater recharge was computed at 21 observation wells by subtracting the water levels at the end of each month from the level of the previous month; only posit
Authors
Caitlin Crossett, Glenn A. Hodgkins, Hadley Menk, Lesley-Ann L. Dupigny-Giroux, Robert W. Dudley, Mary D. Lemcke-Stampone, John C. Hammond
Faster growth and larger size at crèche onset are associated with higher offspring survival in Adélie Penguins
We conducted the first assessment of Adélie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) chick survival that accounts for imperfect resighting. We found that when chicks are larger in size when they enter the crèche stage (the period when both parents forage at the same time and chicks are left relatively unprotected), they have a higher probability of survival to fledging. We investigated the relationships betwe
Authors
Scott Jennings, Katie Dugger, Grant Ballard, David Ainley