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
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Filter Total Items: 171804
Physics-guided recurrent neural networks for predicting lake water temperature
This chapter presents a physics-guided recurrent neural network model (PGRNN) for predicting water temperature in lake systems. Standard machine learning (ML) methods, especially deep learning models, often require a large amount of labeled training samples, which are often not available in scientific problems due to the substantial human labor and material costs associated with data collection. M
Authors
Xiaowei Jia, Jared Willard, Anuj Karpatne, Jordan Read, Jacob Aaron Zwart, Michael Steinbach, Vipin Kumar
Planetary-scale change to the biosphere signalled by global species translocations can be used to identify the Anthropocene
We examine three distinctive biostratigraphic signatures associated with: hunting and gathering, landscape domestication, and globalisation. All three signatures have significant fossil records of regional importance that can be correlated inter-regionally and help describe the developing pattern of human expansion and appropriation of resources. While none have individual first or last appearance
Authors
Mark A. Williams, Reinhold Leinfelder, Anthony D. Barnosky, Martin J Head, Francine M G McCarthy, Cearreta. Alejandro, Stephen J Himson, Rachael Holmes, Colin N. Waters, Jan Zalasiewicz, Simon Turner, Mary McGann, Elizabeth A. Hadly, M. Allison Stegner, Paul Michael Pilkington, Jérôme Kaiser, Juan Carlos Berrio, Ian P. Wilkinson, Jens Zinke, Kristine L. DeLong
Daily surface temperatures for 185,549 lakes in the conterminous United States estimated using deep learning (1980–2020)
The dataset described here includes estimates of historical (1980–2020) daily surface water temperature, lake metadata, and daily weather conditions for lakes bigger than 4 ha in the conterminous United States (n = 185,549), and also in situ temperature observations for a subset of lakes (n = 12,227). Estimates were generated using a long short-term memory deep learning model and compared to exist
Authors
Jared D. Willard, Jordan Read, Simon Nemer Topp, Gretchen J. A. Hansen, Vipin Kumar
Predictive accuracy of post-fire conifer death declines over time in models based on crown and bole injury
A key uncertainty of empirical models of post-fire tree mortality is understanding the drivers of elevated post-fire mortality several years following fire, known as delayed mortality. Delayed mortality can represent a substantial fraction of mortality, particularly for large trees that are a conservation focus in western US coniferous forests. Current post-fire tree mortality models have undergon
Authors
Timothy M. Shearman, J. Morgan Varner, Sharon M. Hood, Phillip J. van Mantgem, C. Alina Cansler, Micah C. Wright
Identifying nutrient sources and sinks to the South Platte River and Cherry Creek, Denver, CO, during low-flow conditions in 2019–2020
Elevated concentrations and loads of nutrients in the South Platte River and Cherry Creek in Denver, Colorado, may have adverse effects on those streams and downstream water bodies, including increased production of algae, eutrophication, and decreased recreational opportunities. This article describes streamflow and concentrations and loads of nutrients for the South Platte River and Cherry Creek
Authors
William A. Battaglin, Tanner William Chapin
Phylogenetic risk assessment is robust for forecasting the impact of European insects on North American conifers
Some introduced species cause severe damage, although the majority have little impact. Robust predictions of which species are most likely to cause substantial impacts could focus efforts to mitigate those impacts or prevent certain invasions entirely. Introduced herbivorous insects can reduce crop yield, fundamentally alter natural and managed forest ecosystems, and are unique among invasive spec
Authors
Daniel R. Uden, Angela M. Mech, Nathan P. Havill, Ashley N. Schulz, Matthew P Ayers, Daniel A. Herms, Angela Marie Hoover, Kamal JK Gandhi, Ruth A. Hufbauer, Andrew M. Liebhold, Travis D Marisco, Kenneth F. Raffa, Kathryn A. Thomas, Patrick C. Tobin, Craig R. Allen
Decision support for aquatic restoration based on species-specific responses to disturbance
Disturbances to aquatic habitats are not uniformly distributed within the Great Lakes and acute effects can be strongest in nearshore areas where both landscape and within lake effects can have strong influence. Furthermore, different fish species respond to disturbances in different ways. A means to identify and evaluate locations and extent of disturbances that affect fish is needed throughout t
Authors
James E. McKenna, Catherine Riseng, Kevin Wehrly
Comparing imidacloprid, clothianidin, and azoxystrobin runoff from lettuce fields using a soil drench or treated seeds in the Salinas Valley, California
Neonicotinoid insecticide use has increased over the last decade, including as agricultural seed treatments (application of chemical in a coating to the seed prior to planting). In California, multiple crops, including lettuce, can be grown using neonicotinoid treated seeds or receive a direct neonicotinoid soil application (drenching) at planting. Using research plots, this study compared pestici
Authors
Emily Woodward, Michelle Hladik, Anson Main, Michael Cahn, James Orlando, Jennifer Teerlink
The Bathy-drone: An autonomous unmanned drone-tethered sonar system
A unique drone-based system for underwater mapping (bathymetry) was developed at the University of Florida. The system, called the “Bathy-drone”, comprises a drone that drags, via a tether, a small vessel on the water surface in a raster pattern. The vessel is equipped with a recreational commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) sonar unit that has down-scan, side-scan, and chirp capabilities and logs GPS-
Authors
Antonio L. Diaz, Andrew E. Ortega, Henry Tingle, Andres Pulido, Orlando Cordero, Marisa Nelson, Nicholas E. Cocoves, Jaejeong Shin, Raymond Carthy, Benjamin E. Wilkinson, Peter G. Ifju
Pleistocene–Holocene vicariance, not Anthropocene landscape change, explains the genetic structure of American black bear (Ursus americanus) populations in the American Southwest and northern Mexico
The phylogeography of the American black bear (Ursus americanus) is characterized by isolation into glacial refugia, followed by population expansion and genetic admixture. Anthropogenic activities, including overharvest, habitat loss, and transportation infrastructure, have also influenced their landscape genetic structure. We describe the genetic structure of the American black bear in the Ameri
Authors
Matthew J. Gould, James W. Cain, Todd C. Atwood, Larisa E. Harding, Heather E. Johnson, Dave P. Onorato, Frederic S. Winslow, Gary W. Roemer
Repeat bathymetric surveys and model simulation of sedimentation processes near fish spawning placements, Detroit and St. Clair Rivers, Michigan
Nine rock-rubble fish spawning placements, or artificial reef complexes, constructed in the
Detroit and St. Clair Rivers between 2004 to 2018 were surveyed periodically with multibeam
sonar. These serial bathymetric surveys, conducted in 2015, 2018, 2021, and 2022, identified
active sand bedform fields impinging two reef complexes: Fighting Island in the Detroit River
and Middle Channel in the
Authors
Paul J. Kinzel, Gregory W. Kennedy, Taylor Dudunake
Congruence among multiple indices of habitat preference for species facing human-induced rapid environmental change: A case study using the Brewer's sparrow
Accurate evaluations of habitat preference are key to understanding optimal conditions for wildlife survival and reproduction. Habitat selection, however, usually is evaluated using a single index of preference, and congruence among multiple, relevant indices of preference is examined rarely.We assessed the concordance between patterns of habitat preference using three different indices of breedin
Authors
Max Carlin, Anna D. Chalfoun