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.
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Least Bell's Vireos and Southwestern Willow Flycatchers—Breeding activities and habitat use—2023 annual report
Executive SummaryWe completed four protocol surveys for Least Bell’s Vireos (Vireo bellii pusillus; hereinafter vireo) during the breeding season, supplemented by weekly territory monitoring visits between April 6 and July 20 at the San Luis Rey Flood Risk Management Project Area (hereinafter Project Area). We identified a total of 136 territorial male vireos; 121 were confirmed as paired, and 4 w
Authors
Alexandra Houston, Lisa D. Allen, Shannon M. Mendia, Barbara E. Kus
Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS) impairs lipid homeostasis in zebrafish larvae through activation of PPARα
Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), an emerging short-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance, has been frequently detected in aquatic environments. Adverse outcome pathway studies have shown that perfluorinated compounds impair lipid homeostasis through peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARs). However, many of these studies were performed at high concentrations and may thus be a re
Authors
Ying-Jie He, Haolin Liao, Ge Yang, Wenhui Qui, Rongrong Xuan, Guomao Zheng, Bentuo Xu, Xin Yang, Jason Tyler Magnuson, Daniel Schlenk, Chunmiao Zheng
Foraging ecology of southern sea otters at the northern range extent informs regional population dynamics
Sea otters Enhydra lutris are vital keystone predators throughout the North Pacific that were nearly extirpated during the maritime fur trade. Recovery of southern sea otters E. l. nereis has proceeded slowly, with much of their historical range remaining unoccupied, resulting in reduced ecosystem functioning. Numerous studies have used foraging metrics to assess the population status of southern
Authors
Sophia N. Lyon, Joseph A. Tomoleoni, Julie L. Yee, Jessica Fujii, Nicole M. Thometz
Paired comparisons with quiet surface drones show evidence of fish behavioral response to motorized vessels during acoustic surveys in Lake Superior
Acoustic surveys are important for fish stock assessments, but fish responses to survey vessels can bias acoustic estimates. We leveraged quiet uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) to characterize potential bias in acoustic surveys. Five conventional motorized ships overtook USVs from astern over 2 km transects at night in Lake Superior in 2022. We examined the difference in acoustic backscatter, avera
Authors
Thomas M. Evans, Lars G. Rudstam, Suresh A Sethi, Daniel Yule, David Warner, Steve A. Farha, Andrew R. Barnard, Mark Richard Dufour, Timothy P. O'Brien, Kayden Nasworthy, Ian Harding, Bradley A. Ray, Edmund J. Isaac, Joshua Blankenheim, Hannah B. Blair, James M. Watkins, Steven A. Senczyszyn, James Roberts, Peter C. Esselman
Water-quality constituent concentrations and loads computed using real-time water-quality data for the Republican River, Clay Center, Kansas, August 2018 through July 2023
Milford Lake, the largest reservoir by surface area in Kansas, has had confirmed harmful algal blooms every summer since reporting began in 2011, except 2018–19. Milford Lake has been listed as impaired and designated hypereutrophic under section 303(d) of the 1972 Clean Water Act. In 2014, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment established a total maximum daily load for eutrophication an
Authors
Ariele R. Kramer, Justin R. Abel
Range-wide salamander densities reveal a key component of terrestrial vertebrate biomass in eastern North American forests
Characterizing the population density of species is a central interest in ecology. Eastern North America is the global hotspot for biodiversity of plethodontid salamanders, an inconspicuous component of terrestrial vertebrate communities, and among the most widespread is the eastern red-backed salamander, Plethodon cinereus. Previous work suggests population densities are high with significant geo
Authors
Evan H. Campbell Grant, Jillian Elizabeth Fleming, Elizabeth Bastiaans, Adrianne Brand, Jacey Brooks, Catherine Devlin, Kristen Epp, Matt Evans, M. Caitlin Fisher-Reid, Brian Gratwicke, Kristine Grayson, Natalie Haydt, Raisa Hernández-Pacheco, Daniel J. Hocking, Amanda Hyde, Michael Losito, Maisie MacKnight, Tanya Matlaga, Louise Mead, David J. Munoz, William B. Peterman, Veronica Puza, Charles Shafer, Sean Sterrett, Chris Sutherland, Lily M. Thompson, Alexa R. Warwick, Alexander D. Wright, Kerry Yurewicz, David A. W. Miller
Wildland fire effects on sediment, salinity, and selenium yields in a basin underlain by Cretaceous marine shales near Rangely, Colorado
Understanding and quantifying soil erosion from rangelands is a high priority for land managers, especially in areas underlain by Cretaceous Mancos Shale, which is a natural source of sediment, salinity, and selenium to surface waters in many areas of western Colorado and eastern Utah. The purpose of this report is to present the results of a U.S. Geological Survey study that assessed sediment, sa
Authors
Natalie K. Day, Todd M. Preston, Patrick C. Longley
Monitoring and simulation of hydrology, suspended sediment, and nutrients in selected tributary watersheds of Lake Erie, New York
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Erie County, New York, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, collected water-quality samples in nine selected New York tributaries to Lake Erie, computed estimates of suspended sediment and nutrient loads using the R scripting package rloadest and used the Soil and Water Assessment To
Authors
Katherine R. Merriman, Benjamin N. Fisher, Elizabeth A. Nystrom, Aubrey R. Bunch, Robert J. Welk, William M. Kappel
Developing version 2 of satellite-estimated precipitation monthly reports for selected locations in the Republic of the Marshall Islands
The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI; also known as the Marshall Islands) is a nation of more than 30 low-lying atolls and islands, most of which are inhabited, dispersed across an Exclusive Economic Zone over 770,000 square miles in the tropical central north Pacific Ocean. The study objectives and methods were originally presented in U.S. Geological Survey Data Report 1181 and are summarize
Authors
Gabriel B. Senay, David A. Helweg, Stefanie Kagone, Thomas Cecere, Tiare Eastmond, Amy Koch, Kurtis Nelson, Jack Randon
Utility of an instantaneous salt dilution method for measuring streamflow in headwater streams
Streamflow records are biased toward large streams and rivers, yet small headwater streams are often the focus of ecological research in response to climate change. Conventional flow measurement instruments such as acoustic Doppler velocimeters (ADVs) do not perform well during low-flow conditions in small streams, truncating the development of rating curves during critical baseflow conditions dom
Authors
Karli M Rogers, Jennifer Burlingame Hoyle Fair, Nathaniel P. Hitt, Karmann G. Kessler, Zachary A. Kelly, Martin Briggs
Redistribution of debris-flow sediment following severe wildfire and floods in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, USA
Severe fire on steep slopes increases stormwater runoff and the occurrence of runoff-initiated debris flows. Predicting locations of debris flows and their downstream effects on trunk streams requires watershed-scale high-resolution topographic data. Intense precipitation in July and September 2013 following the June 2011 Las Conchas Fire in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, led to widespread debri
Authors
J. M. Friedman, Anne C. Tillery, Samuel J. Alfieri, Elizabeth Rachaelann Skaggs, Patrick B. Shafroth, Craig D. Allen
Revision of ModelMuse to support the use of PEST software with MODFLOW and SUTRA models
Executive SummaryModelMuse is a graphical user interface for several groundwater modeling programs. ModelMuse was updated to generate the input files for the parameter estimation software suite PEST. The software is used with MODFLOW or SUTRA models to run PEST-based parameter estimation and display the updated model inputs after parameter estimation. The PEST input files can also be used with the
Authors
Richard B. Winston