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: 171178
Seismic attenuation and stress on the San Andreas Fault at Parkfield: Are we critical yet?
The Parkfield transitional segment of the San Andreas Fault (SAF) is characterized by the production of frequent quasi-periodical M6 events that break the very same asperity. The last Parkfield mainshock occurred on 28 September 2004, 38 years after the 1966 earthquake, and after the segment showed a ∼22 years average recurrence time. The main reason for the much longer interevent period between t
Authors
Luca Malagnini, Robert M. Nadeau, Thomas E. Parsons
Differences in life history patterns of American shad, Alosa sapidissima, populations between ancestral, Atlantic coast, and non-native, Pacific coast rivers of North America
Organisms naturalized outside their native range can reveal new life history patterns in new environments. Here, we compare life history patterns of American shad, Alosa sapidissima, from five rivers along the U.S. Pacific coast (introduced range) with contemporary data from the Atlantic coast source populations. The Pacific coast fish grew slower, matured at a younger age, and were less often ite
Authors
Thomas P. Quinn, Lisa Wetzel, Daniel J. Hasselman, Kimberly Larsen
Improved efficient physics-based computational modeling of regional wave-driven coastal flooding for reef-lined coastlines
Coastal flooding affects low-lying communities worldwide and is expected to increase with climate change, especially along reef-lined coasts, where wave-driven flooding is particularly prevalent. However, current regional modeling approaches are either insufficient or too computationally expensive to accurately assess risks in these complex environments. This study introduces and validates an impr
Authors
Camila Gaido-Lassarre, Kees Nederhoff, Curt Storlazzi, Borja Reguero, Michael W. Beck
Composite estimation to combine spatially overlapping environmental monitoring surveys
Long-term environmental monitoring surveys are designed to achieve a desired precision (measured by variance) of resource conditions based on natural variability information. Over time, increases in resource variability and in data use to address issues focused on small areas with limited sample sizes require bolstering of attainable precision. It is often prohibitive to do this by increasing samp
Authors
Steven Garman, Cindy L. Yu, Yuyang Li
The effects of wastewater reuse on smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) relative abundance in the Shenandoah River Watershed, USA
Municipal and industrial wastewater effluent is an important source of water for lotic systems, especially during periods of low flow. The accumulated wastewater effluent flows—expressed as a percentage of total streamflow (ACCWW%)—contain chemical mixtures that pose a risk to aquatic life; fish may be particularly vulnerable when chronically exposed. Although there has been considerable focus on
Authors
Tyler Wagner, Paul McLaughlin, Kaycee E. Faunce, Samuel H. Austin, Kelly Smalling
Groundwater model of the Harney Basin, southeastern Oregon
Groundwater development, mainly for large-scale irrigation, has increased substantially in the Harney Basin of southeastern Oregon since 2010. Concurrently, some areas of the basin experienced groundwater-level declines of more than 100 feet, and some shallow wells have gone dry. The Oregon Water Resources Department has limited new groundwater development in the basin until an improved understand
Authors
Stephen B. Gingerich, Darrick E. Boschmann, Gerald H. Grondin, Halley J Schibel
Monitoring aquifer-storage change from artificial recharge with repeat microgravity along Santa Cruz River, Tucson, Arizona, 2019–22
The City of Tucson water utility, Tucson Water, began releasing treated effluent into the Santa Cruz River channel near downtown Tucson in 2019. This recharge project—the Heritage Project—is intended to create a reach of consistent flow in the channel and recharge water to the aquifer. Tracking the dispersal of recharged water is important for management decisions because groundwater movement depe
Authors
Libby M. Wildermuth, Jacob L. Conrad
Assessing giant sequoia mortality and regeneration following high-severity wildfire
Fire is a critical driver of giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum [Lindl.] Buchholz) regeneration. However, fire suppression combined with the effects of increased temperature and severe drought has resulted in fires of an intensity and size outside of the historical norm. As a result, recent mega-fires have killed a significant portion of the world's sequoia population (13%–19%), and uncertain
Authors
David Nicolas Bertil Soderberg, Adrian Das, Nathan L. Stephenson, Marc D. Meyer, Christy A. Brigham, Joshua Flickinger
The value of marsh restoration for flood risk reduction in an urban estuary
The use of nature-based solutions (NBS) for coastal climate adaptation has broad and growing interest, but NBS are rarely assessed with the same rigor as traditional engineering solutions or with respect to future climate change scenarios. These gaps pose challenges for the use of NBS for climate adaptation. Here, we value the flood protection benefits of stakeholder-identified marsh restoration u
Authors
Rae M. Taylor-Burns, Chris Lowrie, Babak Tehranirad, Jeremy Lowe, Li H. Erikson, Patrick L. Barnard, Borja G. Reguero, Michael W. Beck
Inoculated biocrust cover and functions diverged over a gradient of soil textures and water availability
Restoring biological crust (biocrust) in disturbed drylands is challenging due to the difficult environmental conditions, such as limited soil moisture, low soil nutrients, and extreme temperatures, that impede growth. Understanding how the key components of biocrust—mosses, lichens, and cyanobacteria—react to different environmental factors informs the optimal timing, locations, and species compo
Authors
Kristina E. Young, Sasha C. Reed, Michael Morton, Matthew A. Bowker
Warm places, warm years, and warm seasons increase parasitizing of moose by winter ticks
Observed links between parasites, such as ticks, and climate change have aroused concern for human health, wildlife population dynamics, and broader ecosystem effects. The one-host life history of the winter tick (Dermacentor albipictus) links each annual cohort to environmental conditions during three specific time periods when they are predictably vulnerable: spring detachment from hosts, summer
Authors
Nicholas J. DeCesare, Richard B. Harris, M. P. Atwood, Eric A. Bergman, AB Courtemanch, Paul Cross, Gary Fralick, Kent Hersey, Mark A. Hurley, T Koser, Rebecca L. Levine, Kevin Monteith, Jesse Newby, Collin Peterson, Sarah M. Robertson, Benjamin Wise
Novel insights about petroleum systems from source and reservoir rock characterization, Cretaceous Deposits, Babouri-Figuil Basin, Northern Cameroon
The Babouri-Figuil Basin (BFB) is a frontier basin for petroleum in Cameroon. It belongs to the series of Cretaceous rift basins of the West and Central Rift System (WCARS), the origin of which is related to the opening of the South Atlantic. Within the same rift system, commercial hydrocarbon accumulations have been discovered in Chad, Sudan, Niger and, more recently, in Nigeria (Gongola Basin).
Authors
Manga Gaspard, Javin J. Hatcherian, Paul C. Hackley, Moise Bessong, Carole Bapowa, Henry Pougue, Arsene Meying