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.
Science Quality and Integrity
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.
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Connecting diverse disciplines to improve understanding of surface water-groundwater interactions
Laura K. Lautz is a premier mentor, collaborator, and researcher at the intersection of natural hydrologic systems and humans. Her research has shifted the paradigm around measuring and understanding the impacts of surface water and groundwater interactions across spatial and temporal scales. She has done this by testing and refining new methods and by collaborating with, training, supporting, and
Authors
Sarah Ledford, Martin Briggs, Robin L. Glas, Margaret Zimmer
Ratification of Neogene subseries as formal units in international chronostratigraphy
The International Union of Geological Sciences Executive Committee (IUGS EC) voted on 13 October 2021 to ratify a proposal for the Neogene subseries/subepochs to have formal status. They are now incorporated into a sixtiered chronostratigraphic hierarchy within the International Chronostratigraphic Chart (ICC). The Lower/Early Miocene Subseries/Subepoch comprises the Aquitanian and Burdigalian sta
Authors
Marie-Pierre Aubry, Kenneth Miller, Elena Turco, Jose Flores Villajero, Andrey Yu. Gladenkov, Patrick Grunert, Frits Hilgen, Hiroshi Nishi, Ann Holbourn, Wout Krijgsman, Fabrizio Lirer, Werner Piller, Frederic Quillevere, Isabella Raffi, Marci M. Robinson, Lorenzo Rook, Jun Tian, Maria Triantaphyllou, Felipe Vallejo
OpenET: Filling a critical data gap in water management for the western United States
The lack of consistent, accurate information on evapotranspiration (ET) and consumptive use of water by irrigated agriculture is one of the most important data gaps for water managers in the western United States (U.S.) and other arid agricultural regions globally. The ability to easily access information on ET is central to improving water budgets across the West, advancing the use of data-driven
Authors
Forrest Melton, Justin Huntington, Robyn Grimm, Jamie Herring, Maurice Hall, Dana Rollison, Tyler Erickson, Richard Allen, Martha Anderson, Joshua Fisher, Ayse Kilic, Gabriel Senay, John Volk, Christopher Hain, Lee Johnson, Anderson Ruhoff, Philip Blankenau, Matthew Bromley, Will Carrara, Britta Daudert, Conor Doherty, Christian Dunkerly, MacKenzie Friedrichs, Alberto Guzman, Gregory Halverson, Jody Hansen, Jordan Harding, Yanghui Kang, David C. Ketchum, Blake Minor, Charles Morton, Samuel Ortega-Salazar, Thomas Ott, Mutlu Ozdogan, Peter Revelle, Mitch Schull, Carlos Wang, Yun Yang, Ray G. Anderson
Habitat-specific foraging by striped bass (Morone saxatilis) in the San Francisco Estuary, California: Implications for tidal restoration
Non-native predatory fish strongly impact aquatic communities, and their impacts can be exacerbated by anthropogenic habitat alterations. Loss of natural habitat and restoration actions reversing habitat loss can modify relationships between non-native predators and prey. Predicting how these relationships will change is often difficult because insufficient information exists on the habitat-specif
Authors
Matthew J. Young, Frederick V. Feyrer, Collin Smith, Dennis A. Valentine
Haploid gynogens facilitate disomic marker development in paleotetraploid sturgeons
Acipenseriformes (sturgeons and paddlefishes) are of substantial conservation concern, and development of genomic resources for these species is difficult due to past whole genome duplication. Development of disomic markers for polyploid organisms can be challenging due to difficulty in resolving alleles at a single locus from those among duplicated loci. In this study, we detail the development o
Authors
Richard Jr Flamio, Dominic G Swift, David S Portnoy, Kimberly Chojnacki, Aaron J. Delonay, Jeffrey Powell, Patrick Braaten, Edward J. Heist
Endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow ecology: Actions towards recovery through landscape-scale ecosystem restoration
Understanding the ecology of endangered taxa and the factors affecting their population growth and decline is imperative for their recovery. In the southeastern USA, the Everglades wetland ecosystem supports a high diversity of species and communities, including many endemic and imperiled taxa, such as the federally endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow Ammospiza maritima mirabilis (CSSS). The Eve
Authors
Allison Benscoter, Stephanie Romanach
A case study: Temporal trends of environmental stressors and reproductive health of smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) from a site in the Potomac River Watershed, Maryland, USA
Decades of poor reproductive success and young-of-the-year survival, combined with adult mortality events, have led to a decline in the smallmouth bass (SMB; Micropterus dolomieu) population in sections of the Potomac River. Previous studies have identified numerous biologic and environmental stressors associated with negative effects on SMB health. To better understand the impact of these stresso
Authors
Heather L. Walsh, Stephanie Gordon, Adam J. Sperry, Michael Kashiwagi, John E. Mullican, Vicki S. Blazer
Hybrid broadband ground-motion simulation validation of small magnitude active shallow crustal earthquakes in New Zealand
This article presents a comprehensive validation of the hybrid broadband ground-motion simulation approach (via the commonly used Graves and Pitarka method) in a New Zealand context with small magnitude point source ruptures using an extensive set of 5218 ground motions recorded at 212 sites from 479 active shallow crustal earthquakes across the country. Modifications to the simulation method infe
Authors
Robin L. Lee, Brendon A. Bradley, Peter J. Stafford, Robert Graves, Adrian Rodriguez-Marek
Verification of irrigated agricultural land acreage in 55 counties in Florida, 2013–21
In 2012, the Florida Legislature mandated that the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), Office of Agricultural Water Policy, promote an agricultural water-conservation program that would include a cost-share program and best management practices and that would aid the five water management districts in the development of consistent agricultural water-supply planning, as
Authors
Richard L. Marella, Joann F. Dixon
The influence of drying on the aeolian transport of river-sourced sand
Transgression and regression of water levels (stages) have impacted the evolution of aeolian landforms and sedimentary deposits throughout geologic history. We studied this phenomenon over a five-day period of reduced flow on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, AZ, USA, in March 2021. These transient low flows exposed river-channel sand deposits to the air, causing progressive desicc
Authors
Joel B. Sankey, Joshua Caster, Alan Kasprak, Helen C. Fairley
Porosity, strength, and alteration – Towards a new volcano stability assessment tool using VNIR-SWIR reflectance spectroscopy
Volcano slope stability analysis is a critical component of volcanic hazard assessments and monitoring. However, traditional methods for assessing rock strength require physical samples of rock which may be difficult to obtain or characterize in bulk. Here, visible to shortwave infrared (350–2500 nm; VNIR–SWIR) reflected light spectroscopy on laboratory-tested rock samples from Ruapehu, Ohakuri, W
Authors
Gabor Kereszturi, Michael J. Heap, Lauren N. Schaefer, Herlan Darmawan, Frances M. Deegan, Ben M. Kennedy, Jean-Christophe Komorowski, Stuart Mead, Marina Rosas-Carbajal, Amy Ryan, Valentin R. Troll, Marlène C. Villeneuve, Thomas R. Walter
Understanding local adaptation to prepare populations for climate change
Adaptation within species to local environments is widespread in nature. Better understanding this local adaptation is critical to conserving biodiversity. However, conservation practices can rely on species’ trait averages or can broadly assume homogeneity across the range to inform management. Recent methodological advances for studying local adaptation provide the opportunity to fine-tune effor
Authors
Mariah H. Meek, Erik A. Beever, Soraia Barbosa, Sarah W. Fitzpatrick, Nicholas K. Fletcher, Cinnamon S. Mittan-Moreau, Brendan N. Reid, Shane C. Campbell-Staton, Nancy Green, Jessica J. Hellmann