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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Mission Area Publications
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Utilizing artificial nesting platforms as a management tool: Enhancing breeding productivity of Western Flycatchers (Empidonax difficilis occidentalis) in southwestern Colorado and southern Arizona, USA
Artificial nesting substrates have been added around the world for many cavity-nesting bird species, but this has not been undertaken as extensively for crevice-nesting birds. The Western Cordilleran Flycatcher (Empidonax difficilis occidentalis) is a migratory, crevice-nesting flycatcher that is nest-site limited, breeding in higher elevation riparian habitats throughout intermountain western Nor
Authors
Charles van Riper, Harold F. Greeney, Abigail J. Darrah, Andrew J. Boyce, Drew F. van Riper, Charles Yackulic
Innovation in climate adaptation: Harnessing innovation for effective biodiversity and ecosystem adaptation
Climate change poses growing risks to species, ecosystems, and people, and is challenging many of the assumptions that underpin modern conservation practice. As climate impacts accelerate, conventional conservation approaches are being compromised and losing their effectiveness. As a result, there is an urgent need to not only center climate adaptation in conservation policy and practice, but for
Authors
Bruce A. Stein, Janet A. Cushing, Stephen T. Jackson, Molly Elizabeth Smith Cross, Wendy Foden, Lauren M. Hallett, Shannon M. Hagerman, Lara J. Hansen, Jessica J. Hellmann, Dawn Magness, Guillermo F. Mendoza, Corina Newsome, Arsum Pathak, Suzanne M. Prober, Joel H. Reynolds, Erika S. Zavaleta
Twenty years of explosive-effusive activity at El Reventador volcano (Ecuador) recorded in its geomorphology
Shifts in activity at long-active, open-vent volcanoes are difficult to forecast because precursory signals are enigmatic and can be lost in and amongst daily activity. Here, we propose that crater and vent morphologies, along with summit height, can help us bring some insights into future activity at one of Ecuador’s most active volcanoes El Reventador. On 3 November 2002, El Reventador volcano e
Authors
Silvia Vallejo Vargas, Angela K. Diefenbach, Elizabeth Gaunt, Marco Almeida, Patricio Ramon, Fernanda Naranjo, Karim Kelfoun
Advanced quantitative precipitation information: Improving monitoring and forecasts of precipitation, streamflow, and coastal flooding in the San Francisco Bay area
Advanced Quantitative Precipitation Information (AQPI) is a synergistic project that combines observations and models to improve monitoring and forecasts of precipitation, streamflow, and coastal flooding in the San Francisco Bay Area. As an experimental system, AQPI leverages more than a decade of research, innovation, and implementation of a statewide, state-of-the-art network of observations, a
Authors
Robert Cifelli, V Chandrasekar, Liv M. Herdman, Dave Turner, A. B. White, M. Alcott, M. C. Anderson, Patrick L. Barnard, S.K. Biswas, M. Boucher, J. Bytheway, H. Chen, H. Cutler, M. English, Li H. Erikson, F. Junyent, L. E. Johnson, J. Krebs, J. van de Lindt, J. Kim, Marty L. Leonard, Y. Ma, M. Marquis, W. Moninger, G. Pratt, C. Radhakrishnan, Michael Shields, J. Spaulding, Babak Tehranirad, R. S. Webb
A framework for disaggregating remote-sensing cropland into rainfed and irrigated classes at continental scale
Agriculture consumes the largest share of freshwater globally; therefore, distinguishing between rainfed and irrigated croplands is essential for agricultural water management and food security. In this study, a framework incorporating the Budyko model was used to differentiate between rainfed and irrigated cropland areas in Africa for eight remote sensing landcover products and a high-confidence
Authors
Afua Owusu, Stefanie Bohms, Mansoor Leh, Naga Manohar Velpuri, Murali Krishna Gumma, Benjamin Ghansah, Paranamana Thilina-Prabhath, Komlavi Akpoti, Kirubel Mekonnen, Primrose Tinonetsana, Ismail Mohammed
Improving crop-specific groundwater use estimation in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain: Implications for integrated remote sensing and machine learning approaches in data-scarce regions
Study regionThe Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP) in the United States (US).Study focusUnderstanding local-scale groundwater use, a critical component of the water budget, is necessary for implementing sustainable water management practices. The MAP is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the US and extracts more than 11 km3/year for irrigation activities. Consequently, groundwater-le
Authors
Sayantan Majumdar, Ryan Smith, Md Fahim Hasan, Jordan Wilson, Vincent E. White, Emilia L. Bristow, James R. Rigby, Wade Kress, Jaime A. Painter
Application of lidar to assess the habitat selection of an endangered small mammal in an estuarine wetland environment
Light detection and ranging (lidar) has emerged as a valuable tool for examining the fine-scale characteristics of vegetation. However, lidar is rarely used to examine coastal wetland vegetation or the habitat selection of small mammals. Extensive anthropogenic modification has threatened the endemic species in the estuarine wetlands of the California coast, such as the endangered salt marsh harve
Authors
J.S. Hagani, J.Y. Takekawa, S.M. Skalos, Michael L. Casazza, M.K. Riley, S.A. Estrella, L. Barthman-Thompson, K.R. Smith, Kevin J. Buffington, Karen M. Thorne
Simulation of groundwater-flow dynamics in the U.S. Northern High Plains driven by multi-model estimates of surficial aquifer recharge
There is growing interest in incorporating higher-resolution groundwater modeling within the framework of large-scale land surface models (LSMs), including processes such as three-dimensional flow, variable soil saturation, and surface water/groundwater interactions. Conversely, complex groundwater models (e.g., the U.S. Geological Survey Groundwater-Flow Model, MODFLOW) often use simpler represen
Authors
Farshid Felfelani, Joseph D. Hughes, Fei Chen, Aubrey L Dugger, Timothy Schneider, David Gochis, Jonathan P. Traylor, Hedeff I. Essaid
Co-registration accuracy between Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 orthorectified products
Landsat orthorectified products use Ground Control Points (GCPs) and Digital Elevation Models (DEM) to improve the geolocation accuracy and temporal consistency, and to account for the relief displacements due to the sensor-target geometry. In Collection-2, to improve the geometric harmonization between Landsat and Sentinel-2 (S2) orthorectified products, the Landsat GCP's absolute and relative ac
Authors
Rajagopalan Rengarajan, Michael J. Choate, Md Nahid Hasan, Alex Denevan
Top-predator recovery abates geomorphic decline of a coastal ecosystem
The recovery of top predators is thought to have cascading effects on vegetated ecosystems and their geomorphology1,2, but the evidence for this remains correlational and intensely debated3,4. Here we combine observational and experimental data to reveal that recolonization of sea otters in a US estuary generates a trophic cascade that facilitates coastal wetland plant biomass and suppresses the e
Authors
Brent B. Hughes, Kathryn M. Beheshti, M. Tim Tinker, Christine Angelini, Charlie Endris, Lee Murai, Sean C. Anderson, Sarah Espinosa, Michelle M. Staedler, Joseph A. Tomoleoni, Madeline Sanchez, Brian R. Silliman
Response of corvid nest predators to thinning: implications for balancing short- and long-term goals for restoration of forest habitat
Forest thinning on public lands in the Pacific Northwest USA is an important tool for restoring diversity in forest stands with a legacy of simplified structure from decades of intensive management for timber production. A primary application of thinning in young (< 50-year-old) stands is to accelerate forest development to mitigate loss of late-seral habitat to decades of logging. However, thinni
Authors
Joan Hagar, Theodore K Owen, Thomas K. Stevens, Lorraine K Waianuhea
Isolation and identification of microcystin-degrading bacteria in Lake Erie source waters and drinking-water plant sand filters
The increasing prevalence of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms and the toxins they produce is a global water-quality issue. In the Western Basin of Lake Erie, high microcystin concentrations have led to water-quality advisories, process adjustments for treating drinking water, and increased water-quality monitoring. Biodegradation is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective way to reduce c
Authors
Donna S. Francy, Jessica R. Cicale, Erin A. Stelzer, Dane C. Reano, Christopher D. Ecker