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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Lateral extent of pyroclastic surge deposits at Ubehebe Crater (Death Valley, CA) and implications for hazards in monogenetic volcanic fields
Hazard assessments in monogenetic volcanic fields require estimates of the runout of
pyroclastic surges that result from phreatomagmatic explosive activity. Previous assessments
used runout distances of 1-4 km, with large cases up to 6 km. Surge deposits at Ubehebe Crater
(~2100 y.b.p., Death Valley, California) have been traced ~9 km from the crater center, and
likely originally extended 1-3 km f
Authors
Gregory Valentine, Judith E. Fierstein, James D.L. White
Quality of groundwater used for public supply in the continental United States: A comprehensive assessment
The presence of contaminants in a source water can constrain its suitability for drinking. The quality of groundwater used for public supply was assessed in 25 principal aquifers (PAs) that account for 84% of groundwater pumped for public supply in the U.S. (89.6 million people on a proportional basis). Each PA was sampled across its lateral extent using an equal-area grid, typically with 60 wells
Authors
Kenneth Belitz, Miranda S. Fram, Bruce D. Lindsey, Paul Stackelberg, Laura M. Bexfield, Tyler D. Johnson, Bryant Jurgens, James A. Kingsbury, Peter B. McMahon, Neil M. Dubrovsky
Tectonics, fault zones, and topography in the Alaska-Canada Cordillera with a focus on the Alaska Range and Denali fault zone
Synergistic interactions between geologic structures and topography have long been recognized to reflect numerous Earth processes and rock properties over time. It was not until the advent of plate tectonics in the midtwentieth century that researchers began to view the nature of the northern Cordillera orogen as a quilt of foreign pieces of crust or “suspect terranes”. The Alaska Range shows comp
Authors
Jonathan Caine, Jeff A. Benowitz
Integrating principles and tools of decision science into value-driven watershed planning for compensatory mitigation
Several environmental policies strive to restore impaired ecosystems and could benefit from a consistent and transparent process — co-developed with key stakeholders — to prioritize impaired ecosystems for restoration activities. The Clean Water Act, for example, establishes reallocation mechanisms to transfer ecosystem services from sites of disturbance to compensation sites to offset aquatic res
Authors
Georgina Maria Sanchez Salas, Mitchell Eaton, Ana María García, Jennifer L. Keisman, Kirsten Ullman, James Blackwell, Ross K. Meentemeyer
Seasonal variability in macroinvertebrate assemblages in paired perennial and intermittent streams in Costa Rica
Ecological effects of flooding and drying events are relatively understudied in the Neotropics and less is known about these hydrological extremes in intermittent streams. Neotropical headwater streams in Costa Rica provide opportunities to evaluate the response of macroinvertebrate communities to seasonal changes in flow regime in relatively human undisturbed systems. We quantified the effects of
Authors
Darixa D Hernandez-Abrams, Scott Connelly, Mary Freeman, Pablo E. Gutierrez-Fonseca, Seth J. Wenger
Climate disequilibrium dominates uncertainty in long-term projections of primary productivity
Rapid climate change may exceed ecosystems' capacities to respond through processes including phenotypic plasticity, compositional turnover and evolutionary adaption. However, consequences of the resulting climate disequilibria for ecosystem functioning are rarely considered in projections of climate change impacts. Combining statistical models fit to historical climate data and remotely-sensed es
Authors
Andrew J Felton, Robert K Shriver, Michael Stemkovski, John B. Bradford, Katharine N. Suding, Peter B. Adler
Avian predation on juvenile and adult Lost River and Shortnose Suckers: An updated multi-predator species evaluation
Previous research suggests that predation by piscivorous colonial waterbirds may negatively influence the survival of Lost River Suckers (LRS) Deltistes luxatus and Shortnose Suckers (SNS) Chasmistes brevirostris in the Upper Klamath Basin (UKB), USA. However, estimates of predation from past studies, which were based on suckers with PIT tags, represent minimum estimates of sucker mortality becaus
Authors
Allen Evans, Quinn Payton, Nathan V Banet, Bradley M. Cramer, Caylen Kelsey, David A. Hewitt
River channel response to invasive plant treatment across the American Southwest
Invasive riparian plants were introduced to the American Southwest in the early 19th century and contributed to regional trends of decreasing river channel width and migration rate in the 20th century. More recently, efforts to remove invasive riparian vegetation (IRV) have been widespread, especially since 1990. To what extent has IRV treatment reversed the earlier trend of channel narrowing and
Authors
Celeste Wieting, J. M. Friedman, Sara L. Rathburn
Off-fault deformation in regions of complex fault geometries: the 2013, Mw7.7, Baluchistan rupture (Pakistan)
Observations of recent earthquake surface ruptures show that ground deformations include a localized component occurring on faults, and an off-fault component affecting the surrounding medium. This second component is also referred to as off-fault deformation (OFD). The localized component generally occurs on complex networks of faults that connect at depth onto a unique fault plane, whereas OFD c
Authors
Solene Antoine, Yann Klinger, Arthur Delorme, Ryan D. Gold
Optical properties of dissolved organic matter in throughfall and stemflow vary across tree species and season in a temperate headwater forest
Tree-derived dissolved organic matter (DOM) comprises a significant carbon flux within forested watersheds. Few studies have assessed the optical properties of tree-derived DOM. To increase understanding of the factors controlling tree-derived DOM quality, we measured DOM optical properties, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and calcium concentrations in throughfall and stemflow for 17 individual rai
Authors
Kevin A Ryan, Thomas Adler, Ann T. Chalmers, Julia Perdrial, Stephen Sebestyen, James B. Shanley, Aron Stubbins
Disease outbreaks select for mate choice and coat color in wolves
We know much about pathogen evolution and the emergence of new disease strains, but less about host resistance and how it is signaled to other individuals and subsequently maintained. The cline in frequency of black-coated wolves (Canis lupus) across North America is hypothesized to result from a relationship with canine distemper virus (CDV) outbreaks. We tested this hypothesis using cross-sectio
Authors
Sarah Cubaynes, E E Brandell, Daniel R. Stahler, Douglas W. Smith, Emily S. Almberg, Susanne Schindler, Robert K. Wayne, Andrew P. Dobson, Bridgett M. vonHoldt, Daniel R. MacNulty, Paul C. Cross, Peter J. Hudson, Tim Coulson
Spatial estimates of soil moisture for understanding ecological potential and risk: a case study for arid and semi-arid ecosystems
Soil temperature and moisture (soil-climate) affect plant growth and microbial metabolism, providing a mechanistic link between climate and growing conditions. However, spatially explicit soil-climate estimates that can inform management and research are lacking. We developed a framework to estimate spatiotemporal-varying soil moisture (monthly, annual, and seasonal) and temperature-moisture regim
Authors
Michael S. O'Donnell, Daniel Manier