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: 171176
Current and projected flood exposure for Alaska coastal communities
Globally, coastal communities experience flood hazards that are projected to worsen from climate change and sea level rise. The 100-year floodplain or record flood are commonly used to identify risk areas for planning purposes. Remote communities often lack measured flood elevations and require innovative approaches to estimate flood elevations. This study employs observation-based methods to esti
Authors
Richard Michael Buzard, Christopher V. Maio, Li H. Erikson, Jacquelyn R. Overbeck, Nicole E. M. Kinsman, Benjamin M. Jones
Land-use and land-cover change in the Lower Rio Grande Ecoregions, Texas, 2001–2011
Urban growth and other land-use changes were examined in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and Alluvial Floodplain ecoregions in Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border. The analysis focused on understanding the types and causes of land change as well as the recovery of natural land-cover types between years 2001 and 2011. The purpose was to develop improved capabilities for understanding land change dynami
Authors
Mark A. Drummond, Michael P. Stier, Jamie L. McBeth
Assessing spatial variability of nutrients, phytoplankton, and related water-quality constituents in the California Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta at the landscape scale—2018 high resolution mapping surveys
Executive Summary This study examined the abundance and distribution of nutrients and phytoplankton in the tidal aquatic environments of the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta (Delta) and Suisun Bay, comprising three spatial surveys conducted in May, July, and October of 2018 that used continuous underway high frequency sampling and measurements onboard a high-speed boat to characterize spatial variatio
Authors
Brian A. Bergamaschi, Tamara E. C. Kraus, Bryan D. Downing, Elizabeth B. Stumpner, Katy O'Donnell, Jeffrey A. Hansen, Jeniffer Soto Perez, Emily T. Richardson, Angela M. Hansen, Alan Gelber
Fishes move to transient local refuges, not persistent landscape refuges during river drying experiment
Anthropogenically driven flow intermittency is increasing in freshwater streams, with important implications for the management and conservation of aquatic ecosystems. Because most freshwater fishes are mobile, they are expected to emigrate from intermittent reaches, but this may not be true in streams transitioning from perennial to intermittent. Here, we attempt to determine if riverine fishes v
Authors
Thomas P Archdeacon, Eric J. Gonzales, Charles Yackulic
A Robot Operating System (ROS) package for mapping flow fields in rivers via Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV)
Non-contact, remote sensing approaches to measuring flow velocities in river channels are widely used, but typical workflows involve acquiring images in the field and then processing data later in the office. To reduce latency between acquisition and output, with the ultimate goal of enabling real-time image velocimetry, we developed a Robot Operating System (ROS) package for Particle Image Veloci
Authors
Carl J. Legleiter, Michael Dille
Estimating migration timing and abundance in partial migratory systems by integrating continuous antenna detections with physical captures
Many populations migrate between two different habitats (e.g. wintering/foraging to breeding area, mainstem–tributary, river–lake, river–ocean, river–side channel) as part of their life history. Detection technologies, such as passive integrated transponder (PIT) antennas or sonic receivers, can be placed at boundaries between habitats (e.g. near the confluence of rivers) to detect migratory movem
Authors
Maria C. Dzul, William L. Kendall, Charles Yackulic, D.R. Van Haverbeke, P. Mackinnon, K. Young, M. Pillow, Joseph E Thomas
Triangle Area Water Supply Monitoring Project, North Carolina—Overview of hydrologic and water-quality monitoring activities and data quality assurance
Surface-water supplies are important sources of drinking water for residents in the Triangle area of North Carolina, which is located within the upper Cape Fear and Neuse River Basins. Since 1988, the U.S. Geological Survey and a consortium of local governments have participated in a cooperative effort, known as the Triangle Area Water Supply Monitoring Project, to track water-quality and quantity
Authors
J.C. Diaz, Rosemary Margaret Fanelli
Phytoplankton, taste-and-odor compounds, and cyanotoxin occurrence in four water-supply reservoirs in the Triangle area of North Carolina, April–October 2014
Prior to 2014, local utilities and State agencies monitored for cyanotoxins and taste-and-odor (T&O) compounds and reported occasional detections in three water-supply reservoirs in Wake County, North Carolina. Comparable data for cyanotoxins and T&O compounds were lacking for other water-supply reservoirs in the Triangle area of North Carolina. This report assesses whether cyanotoxins and T&O com
Authors
Celeste A. Journey, Anna M. McKee, Jessica C. Diaz
Cross-scale analysis reveals interacting predictors of annual and perennial cover in Northern Great Basin rangelands
Exotic annual grass invasion is a widespread threat to the integrity of sagebrush ecosystems in Western North America. Although many predictors of annual grass prevalence and native perennial vegetation have been identified, there remains substantial uncertainty about how regional-scale and local-scale predictors interact to determine vegetation heterogeneity, and how associations between vegetati
Authors
Madelon Florence Case, Kirk W. Davies, Chad S. Boyd, Lina Aoyama, Joanna Merson, Calvin Penkauskas, Lauren M. Hallett
Design and calibration of a nitrate decision support tool for groundwater wells in Wisconsin, USA
This paper describes development of a nitrate decision support tool for groundwater wells (GW-NDST) that combines nitrate leaching and groundwater lag-times to compute well concentrations. The GW-NDST uses output from support models that simulate leached nitrate, groundwater age distributions, and nitrate reduction rates. The support models are linked through convolution to simulate nitrate transp
Authors
Paul F. Juckem, Nicholas Corson-Dosch, Laura A. Schachter, Christopher Green, Kelsie M. Ferin, Eric G. Booth, Christopher J. Kucharik, Brian P. Austin, Leon J. Kauffman
Modeling the potential spread of the non-native regal demoiselle, Neopomacentrus cyanomos, in the western Atlantic
Predicting the potential distribution of a non-native species can assist management efforts to mitigate impacts on recipient ecosystems. However, such predictions are lacking for marine species, such as the non-native regal demoiselle, Neopomacentrus cyanomos, that is currently expanding its distribution in the western Atlantic. We used correlative species distribution models with three common alg
Authors
Melanie M Esch, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Nuno Simoes, Timothy R McClanahan, Alastair R Harborne
Simulating past and future fire impacts on Mediterranean ecosystems
Worldwide, large wildfires are becoming increasingly common, leading to economic damages and threatening ecosystems and human health. Under future climate change, more frequent fire disturbance may push ecosystems into non-forested alternative stable states. Fire-prone ecosystems such as those in the Mediterranean Basin are expected to be particularly vulnerable, but the position of tipping points
Authors
Christoph Schwörer, César Morales-Molino, Erika Gobet, Paul D. Henne, Salvatore Pasta, Tiziana Pedrotta, Jacqueline F. N. van Leeuwen, Boris Vannière, Willy Tinner