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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Groundwater-level altitudes and groundwater-flow direction and nature and extent of volatile and semivolatile organic compounds at Petro-Chemical Systems, Inc. (Turtle Bayou), Superfund site, Liberty County, Texas, 2020
The Petro-Chemical Systems, Inc. (Turtle Bayou), Superfund site is 15 miles southeast of Liberty, Texas, in Liberty County. Improper disposal of waste oils led to contamination of soil and groundwater at the site. In cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey collected water-quality samples from 11 monitoring wells at the site, in particular the area near
Authors
Christopher L. Braun, Kent D. Becher
Development of an online reporting format to facilitate the inclusion of ecosystem services into Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program reports
The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program is a program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency. The Secretary of Agriculture is required to submit an annual report to Congress on Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program agreements that, among other things, reports on the progress made towards fulfilling commitments outlined in the agreements. The U.S. Geological
Authors
David M. Mushet, Owen P. McKenna
Preliminary evidence of anticoagulant rodenticide exposure in American kestrels (Falco sparverius) in the western United States
Although there is extensive evidence of declines in the American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) population across North America, the cause of such declines remains a mystery. One hypothesized driver of decline is anticoagulant rodenticide (AR) exposure, which could potentially cause mortality or reduced fitness. We investigated AR exposure in wild American Kestrels in Utah, USA. We collected and teste
Authors
Evan R. Buechley, Dave Oleyar, Jesse Watson, Jennifer Bridgeman, Steven Volker, David A. Goldade, Catherine E. Swift, Barnett A. Rattner
Bioavailability of dissolved organic matter varies with anthropogenic landcover in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
Anthropogenic conversion of forests and wetlands to agricultural and urban landcovers impacts dissolved organic matter (DOM) within streams draining these catchments. Research on how landcover conversion impacts DOM molecular level composition and bioavailability, however, is lacking. In the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB), water from low-order streams and rivers draining one of three dominan
Authors
Derrick R. Vaughn, Anne M. Kellerman, Kimberly Wickland, Robert G. Striegl, David C. Podgorski, Jon R. Hawkings, Jaap H. Nienhuis, Mark M. Dornblaser, Edward G. Stets, Robert G.M. Spencer
Ordovician geology of Alaska
Ordovician rocks, found in northern, east-central, interior and southern Alaska, formed in a variety of depositional and palaeogeographic settings. Shallow- and deep-water strata deposited along the northwestern Laurentian margin occur in east-central Alaska (Yukon River area) and probably correlative rocks crop out to the north in the Porcupine River area. Ordovician strata elsewhere in Alaska ar
Authors
Julie A. Dumoulin, Justin V. Strauss, John Repetski
Gaussian process forecasts Pseudogymnoascus destructans will cover coterminous United States by 2030
White-nose syndrome has been decimating populations of several bat species since its first occurrence in the Northeastern United States in the winter 2006–2007. The spread of the disease has been monitored across the continent through the collaboration of many organizations. Inferring the rate of spread of the disease and predicting its arrival at new locations is critical when assessing the curre
Authors
Ashton M. Wiens, Wayne E. Thogmartin
Towards a unified drag coefficient formula for quantifying wave energy reduction by salt marshes
Coastal regions are susceptible to increasing flood risks amid climate change. Coastal wetlands play an important role in mitigating coastal hazards. Vegetation exerts a drag force to the flow and dampens storm surges and wind waves. The prediction of wave attenuation by vegetation typically relies on a pre-determined drag coefficient CD. Existing CD formulas are subject to vegetation biomechanica
Authors
Ling Zhu, Q. Chen, Yan Ding, Navid H. Jafari, Hongqing Wang, Bradley D. Johnson
Genetic population structure of cisco, Coregonus artedi, in the Laurentian Great Lakes
Management of a widely distributed species can be a challenge when management priorities, resource status, and assessment methods vary across jurisdictions. For example, restoration and preservation of coregonine species diversity is a goal of management agencies across the Laurentian Great Lakes. However, management goals and the amount of information available varies across management units, mak
Authors
Wendylee Stott, Daniel Yule, Chris L. Davis, Kevin Donner, Mark P. Ebener, Stephen Lenart, Christopher Olds
An extrapolation method for estimating loads from unmonitored areas using watershed model load ratios
It is important to routinely estimate loads from an entire watershed to describe current conditions and evaluate how watershed-wide management efforts have affected the nutrient and sediment export that affect downstream water quality. However, monitoring in most areas, including the Great Lakes watershed, consists of sampling at a limited number of sites that are only periodically used to estimat
Authors
Dale M. Robertson, David A. Saad, Greg F. Koltun
A 1.8 million year history of Amazon vegetation
During the Pleistocene, long-term trends in global climate were controlled by orbital cycles leading to high amplitude glacial-interglacial variability. The history of Amazonian vegetation during this period is largely unknown since no continuous record from the lowland basin extends significantly beyond the last glacial stage. Here we present a paleoenvironmental record spanning the last 1800 kyr
Authors
Andrea K. Kern, Thomas K. Akabane, Jaqueline Q. Ferreira, Cristiano M. Chiessi, Debra A. Willard, Fabricio Ferreira, Allan O. Sanders, Cleverson G. Silva, Catherine Rigsby, Francisco W. Cruz, Gary S. Dwyer, Sherilyn C. Fritz, Paul A. Baker
Minimum requirements for publishing hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur stable-isotope delta results (IUPAC Technical Report)
Stable hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur (HCNOS) isotope compositions expressed as isotope-delta values are typically reported relative to international standards such as Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (VSMOW), Vienna Peedee belemnite (VPDB) or Vienna Cañon Diablo Troilite (VCDT). These international standards are chosen by convention and the calibration methods used to realise them
Authors
Grzegorz Skrzypek, Colin Allison, John K. Böhlke, Luana Bontempo, Paul Brewer, Federica Camin, James F. Carter, Michelle M.G. Chartrand, Tyler B. Coplen, Manfred Gröning, Jean-François Hélie, Germain Esquivel-Hernández, Rebecca Kraft, Dana A. Magdas, Jacqueline L. Mann, Juris Meija, Harro A. J. Meijer, Heiko Moossen, Nives Ogrinc, Matteo Perini, Antonio Possolo, Karyne Rogers, Arndt Schimmelmann, Aldo Shemesh, David X. Soto, Freddy Thomas, Robert Wielgosz, Michael R. Winchester, Zhao Yan, Philip J. H. Dunn
Dynamic material flow analysis of tantalum in the United States from 2002 to 2020
Tantalum has received considerable attention due to risks associated with its supply chain. In 2020 ∼70% of global tantalum supply originated in Africa, with 40% produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone. The United States has relied entirely on imports since the 1950s. However, quantifying total domestic consumption is problematic because refined tantalum compounds do not have unique tar
Authors
Abraham J. Padilla, Nedal T. Nassar