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.
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Age of the late Holocene Bonneville landslide and submerged forest of the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon and Washington, USA, by radiocarbon dating
The late Holocene Bonneville landslide, a 15.5 km2 rockslide-debris avalanche, descended 1000 m from the north side of the Columbia River Gorge and dammed the Columbia River where it bisects the Cascade Range of Oregon and Washington, USA. The landslide, inundation, and overtopping created persistent geomorphic, ecologic, and cultural consequences to the river corridor, reported by Indigenous narr
Authors
Nathaniel D. Reynolds, Jim E. O'Connor, Patrick T. Pringle, Alex C. Bourdeau, Robert L. Schuster
Social and reproductive behaviors
Sirenian social and reproductive behaviors lack much complexity or diversity. Whereas sirenians are usually sighted as solitary, or as cows with single calves, aggregations of many individuals can occur. Persistent social groupings are unknown. Home ranges are widely overlapping. Mating systems of dugongs (Dugong dugon) have been variously described as leks or as scramble promiscuity (mating herds
Authors
Thomas J. O'Shea, Cathy Beck, Amanda J. Hodgson, Lucy W Keith-Diagne, Miriam Marmontel
A new indicator approach to reconstruct agricultural land use in Europe from sedimentary pollen assemblages
The reconstruction of human impact is pivotal in palaeoecological studies, as humans are among the most important drivers of Holocene vegetation and ecosystem change. Nevertheless, separating the anthropogenic footprint on vegetation dynamics from the impact of climate and other environmental factors (disturbances such as fire, erosion, floods, landslides, avalanches, volcanic eruptions) is a chal
Authors
Mara Deza-Araujo, César Morales-Molino, Marco Conedera, Paul D. Henne, Patrick Krebs, Martin Hinz, Caroline Heitz, Albert Hafner, Willy Tinner
Controlling invasive fish in fluctuating environments: Model analysis of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) in a shallow lake
Climate change can act to facilitate or inhibit invasions of non-native species. Here, we address the influence of climate change on control of non-native common carp (hereafter, carp), a species recognized as one of the “world's worst” invaders across the globe. Control of this species is exceedingly difficult, as it exhibits rapid population growth and compensatory density dependence. In many lo
Authors
James B Pearson, J. Ryan Bellmore, Jason B. Dunham
A progressive flow-routing model for rapid assessment of debris-flow inundation
Debris flows pose a significant hazard to communities in mountainous areas, and there is a continued need for methods to delineate hazard zones associated with debris-flow inundation. In certain situations, such as scenarios following wildfire, where there could be an abrupt increase in the likelihood and size of debris flows that necessitates a rapid hazard assessment, the computational demands o
Authors
Alexander Gorr, Luke A. McGuire, Ann Youberg, Francis K. Rengers
Laurentia in transition during the Mesoproterozoic: Observations and speculation on the ca. 1500–1340 Ma tectonic evolution of the southern Laurentian margin
An accretionary tectonic model for the Mesoproterozoic ca. 1500–1340 Ma tectonic evolution of the southern Laurentian margin is presented. The tectonic model incorporates key observations about the nature and timing of Mesoproterozoic deposition, magmatism, regional metamorphism, and deformation across the 5000-km-long southern Laurentian margin. This time period was one of transition in the super
Authors
Christopher G. Daniel, Ruth Aronoff, Aphrodite Indares, James V. Jones
Water-use data in the United States: Challenges and future directions
In the United States, greater attention has been given to developing water supplies and quantifying available waters than determining who uses water, how much they withdraw and consume, and how and where water use occurs. As water supplies are stressed due to an increasingly variable climate, changing land-use, and growing water needs, greater consideration of the demand side of the water balance
Authors
Landon Marston, Abdel Abdallah, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Kerim Dickson, Pierre D. Glynn, Sara Larsen, Forrest Melton, Kyle Onda, Jaime A. Painter, James Prairie, Benjamin Ruddell, Richard Rushforth, Gabriel B. Senay, Kimberly Shaffer
Summary of the midchannel springflows in Jackson River below Gathright Dam between April 24, 2010, and May 7, 2019
Between April 2010 and May 2019, springflow was determined for a midchannel spring
in Jackson River below Gathright Dam near Hot Springs, Virginia. The springflow was
measured to assess if the spring was influenced by the elevation of Lake Moomaw. Local
precipitation was also reviewed to determine whether variations in springflow were influenced
by rainfall. The spring is approximately 250 feet do
Authors
Bryan Pula, Shaun Wicklein
Age and water-quality characteristics of groundwater discharge to the South Loup River, Nebraska, 2019
Streams in the Loup River Basin are sensitive to groundwater withdrawals because of the close hydrologic connection between groundwater and surface water. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Upper Loup and Lower Loup Natural Resources Districts, and the Nebraska Environmental Trust, studied the age and water-quality characteristics of groundwater near the South Loup River to assess
Authors
Christopher M. Hobza, John E. Solder
Compilation and evaluation of data used to identify groundwater sources under the direct influence of surface water in Pennsylvania
A study was conducted to compile and evaluate data used to identify groundwater sources that are under the direct influence of surface water (GUDI) in Pennsylvania. In the early 1990s, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) implemented the Surface Water Identification Protocol (SWIP) for the identification of GUDI sources. Since the establishment of the SWIP, PADEP has cla
Authors
Eliza L. Gross, Matthew D. Conlon, Dennis W. Risser, Chad E. Reisch
Black carbon dominated dust in recent radiative forcing on Rocky Mountain snowpacks
The vast majority of surface water resources in the semi-arid western United States start as winter snowpack. Solar radiation is a primary driver of snowmelt, making snowpack water resources especially sensitive to even small increases in concentrations of light absorbing particles such as mineral dust and combustion-related black carbon (BC). Here we show, using fresh snow measurements and snowpa
Authors
Kelly Gleason, Joseph R. McConnell, Monica Arienzo, Graham A. Sexstone, Stefan Rahimi
Grassland conservation supports migratory birds and produces economic benefits for the commercial beekeeping industry in the U.S. Great Plains
Although declines in grassland birds have been documented, national initiatives to conserve grasslands and their biota have fallen short in part because the non-market values of natural ecosystems and species are often not recognized in political decision making. Identifying shared, anthropogenic threats faced by market-valued and non-market-valued species may generate additional support for grass
Authors
Clint R.V. Otto, Haochi Zheng, Torre Hovick, Max Post van der Burg, Benjamin A. Geaumont