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: 171804
Water-surface profile maps for the Mississippi River near Prairie Island, Minnesota, 2019
Digital water-surface profile maps for a 14-mile reach of the Mississippi River near Prairie Island, Minnesota, from the confluence of the St. Croix River at Prescott, Wisconsin, to upstream from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lock and Dam No. 3 (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers National Inventory of Dams number MN00595) in Welch, Minnesota, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in coope
Authors
Aliesha L. Krall, Julia G. Prokopec
Projected stream fish community risk to climate impacts in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States
Climate change is expected to alter stream fish habitat potentially leading to changes in the composition and distribution of fish communities. In the Northeastern and Midwestern United States we identified the distribution and characteristics of those fish communities most and least at risk of experiencing changes in climate which deviate from the climate they are associated with. We classified s
Authors
N. Sievert, Craig Paukert, J. B. Whittier, Wesley Daniel, D.M. Infante, Jana Stewart
What to expect when you are expecting earthquake early warning
We present a strategy for earthquake early warning (EEW) alerting that focuses on providing users with a target level of performance for their shaking level of interest (for example, ensuring that users receive warnings for at least 95 per cent of the occurrences of that shaking level). We explore the factors that can affect the accuracy of EEW shaking forecasts including site conditions (which ca
Authors
Sarah E. Minson, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Jessie Kate Saunders, Sara McBride, Stephen Wu, Annemarie S. Baltay, Kevin R. Milner
A generically parameterized model of Lake eutrophication: The impact of Stoichiometric ratios and constraints on the abundance of natural phytoplankton communities (GPLake-S)
Water quality improvement to avoid excessive phytoplankton blooms often requires eutrophication management where both phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) play a role. While empirical eutrophication studies and ecological resource competition theory both provide insight into phytoplankton abundance in response to nutrient loading, they are not seamlessly linked in the current state of eutrophication re
Authors
Manqi Chang, Donald L. DeAngelis, Jan H. Janse, Annette B.G. Janssen, Tineke A. Troost, Dianneke van Wijk, Wolf M. Mooij, Sven Teurlincx
Measuring and attributing sedimentary and geomorphic responses to modern climate change: Challenges and opportunities
Today, climate change is affecting virtually all terrestrial and nearshore settings. This commentary discusses the challenges of measuring climate-driven physical landscape responses to modern global warming: short and incomplete data records, land use and seismicity masking climatic effects, biases in data availability and resolution, and signal attenuation in sedimentary systems. We identify opp
Authors
Amy E. East, Jonathan Warrick, Dongfeng Li, Joel B. Sankey, Margaret H. Redsteer, Ann E. Gibbs, Jeffrey A. Coe, Patrick L. Barnard
Simulating burn severity maps at 30 meters in two forested regions in California
Climate change is altering wildfire behavior and vegetation regimes in California’s forested ecosystems. Present day fires are seeing an increase in high burn severity area and high severity patch size. The ability to predict future burn severity patterns would support better policy and land management decisions. Here we demonstrate a methodology to first, statistically estimate individual burn se
Authors
Jonathan A. Sam, W. Jonathan Baldwin, Anthony LeRoy Westerling, Haiganoush K. Preisler, Qingqing Xu, Matthew D. Hurteau, Benjamin M. Sleeter, Samrajya B. Thapa
Science mission requirements for a globally ranging, riserless drilling vessel for U.S. Scientific Ocean Drilling
Through the collection and analysis of shallow and deep subseafloor sediments, rocks, fluids, and life, scientific ocean drilling has enriched our understanding of the complex Earth system. Among other achievements, scientific ocean drilling has documented the history of Earth’s climate, the waxing and waning of polar ice sheets, the past changes in ocean and atmospheric circulation, the existence
Authors
Stephanie A Carr, Timothy Collett, Justin P. Dodd, Patricia Fryer, Patrick Fulton, Sean P. S. Gulick, Hiroko Kitajima, Anthony A.P. Koppers, Basia Marcks, D. Jay Miller, Yair Rosenthal, Angela Slagle, Masako Tominaga, Marta E. Torres, Julia Wellner
Defining the timing, extent, and conditions of Paleozoic metamorphism in the southern Appalachian Blue Ridge terranes of Tennessee, North Carolina, and northern Georgia
The tectonometamorphic evolution of the southern Appalachians, which results from multiple Paleozoic orogenies (Taconic, Neoacadian, and Alleghanian), has lacked a consensus interpretation regarding its thermal-metamorphic history. The Blue Ridge terranes have remained the focus of the debate, with the interpreted timing of regional Barrovian metamorphism and associated deformation ranging from ea
Authors
J. Ryan Thigpen, David P. Moecher, Harold H. Stowell, Arthur J. Merschat, Robert D. Hatcher, Nicholas Edwin Powell, Brandon M. Spencer, Calvin A. Mako, Elizabeth M. Bollen, Andrew R C Kylander-Clark
Ceratocystis lukuohia-infested ambrosia beetle frass as inoculum for Ceratocystis wilt of ʻōhiʻa (Metrosideros polymorpha)
Metrosideros polymorpha (‘ōhi‘a) trees in Hawaiʻi are dying from two distinct diseases, collectively referred to as rapid ‘ōhi‘a death (ROD), caused by Ceratocystis lukuohia and Ceratocystis huliohia. Boring dust (frass) released when ambrosia beetles attack and colonize infected trees has been suspected as a transmission source. We sampled ambrosia beetle frass from six locations on Hawaiʻi Islan
Authors
Marc A Hughes, Kylle Roy, Thomas C Harrington, Eva Brill, Lisa M Keith
Considering behavioral state when predicting habitat use: Behavior-specific spatial models for the endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle
Effective planning for species conservation often requires an understanding of habitat use. The resources an animal selects within the landscape relate to its behavioral state and, therefore, incorporating behavior into habitat selection analyses can help inform management of threatened species. Here we present an approach for developing behavior-specific spatial habitat-use models using large qua
Authors
James M. Pay, Toby A Patterson, Kirstin M Proft, Elissa Z. Cameron, Clare E. Hawkins, Amelia J. Koch, Jason M Wiersma, Todd E. Katzner
Attribution of monotonic trends and change points in peak streamflow across the conterminous United States using a multiple working hypotheses framework, 1941–2015 and 1966–2015
The U.S. Geological Survey has a long history of leading flood-frequency analysis studies. These studies play a critical role in the assessment of risk, protection of lives, and planning and design of flood protection infrastructure. Standard flood-frequency analysis is based on the assumption of stationarity—that is, that the distribution of floods at a given site varies around a particular mean
Drainage infrastructure and groundwater system response to changes in sea level and precipitation, Broward County, Florida
Executive SummarySoutheast Florida is highly susceptible to flooding because of its low topography and porous, highly permeable Biscayne aquifer. Rising seas will likely result in increased groundwater levels in parts of Broward County, Florida, that will reduce available soil storage and therefore increase the likelihood of inundation and flooding from precipitation events. Moreover, rising seas