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
Perceived constraints to participating in wildlife-related recreation
Wildlife-related recreationists play an important role in conservation. Understanding constraints to wildlife-related activities is critical for maintaining or increasing participation in activities like birdwatching and hunting. A mail-out survey was administered to a generalized sample representative of U.S. residents (i.e., not specific to birdwatching or hunting) in early 2017 to determine wha
Authors
Nicholas Cole, Emily J. Wilkins, Kaylin Clements, Rudy Schuster, Ashley A. Dayer, H. W. Harshaw, David C. Fulton, Jennifer N. Duberstein, Andrew H. Raedeke
Do seeding and seedling planting result in similar restored plant communities?
AimsRestoration practitioners often face a tradeoff between low cost but risky seeding vs expensive but more reliable seedling planting to meet revegetation goals. Knowing under what environmental and management conditions direct seeding vs seedling planting benefit different species could improve restoration practice.MethodsWe compared seed emergence to planted-seedling survival among perennial h
Authors
Bradley J. Butterfield, Seth M. Munson
Panel review of Ground Motion Characterization Model in 2023 NSHM
The 2023 National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM; Petersen et al., 2023) has two major components – a seismic source characterization (SSC) model and a ground motion characterization (GMC) model. The US Geological Survey (USGS) established separate panels to review and provide input on these two models. Both panels are advisory, meaning that they provide input on technical issues for consideration by
Authors
Jonathan P. Stewart, Norman A. Abrahamson, Gail M. Atkinson, John G. Anderson, Kenneth W. Campbell, Chris H. Cramer, Michael Kolaj, Grace Alexandra Parker
Bobcat occupancy, tree islands, and invasive Burmese pythons in an Everglades conservation area
Bobcats (Lynx rufus) are terrestrial mammals that also inhabit tree islands (i.e., topographically elevated patches of forested land) embedded in the subtropical Everglades wetlands, which serve as a dry refuge habitat during the wet season in this region of Florida, USA. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan seeks to restore Everglades water flow to pre-drainage conditions, but little is
Authors
Katherine M. Buckman, Laura D'Acunto, Stephanie Romanach, Rachel M. Taylor, Nathan J. Dorn
Carbonate chemistry and carbon sequestration driven by inorganic carbon outwelling from mangroves and saltmarshes
Mangroves and saltmarshes are biogeochemical hotspots storing carbon in sediments and in the ocean following lateral carbon export (outwelling). Coastal seawater pH is modified by both uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide and natural biogeochemical processes, e.g., wetland inputs. Here, we investigate how mangroves and saltmarshes influence coastal carbonate chemistry and quantify the contributi
Authors
Gloria Reithmaier, Alex Cabral, Anirban Akhand, Matthew Bogard, Alberto V. Borges, Steven Bouillon, David J. Burdige, Mitchel Call, Nengwang Chen, Xiaogang Chen, Jr. Cotovicz, Meagan J. Eagle, Erik Kristensen, Kevin D. Kroeger, Zeyang Lu, Damien Maher, Lucas Pérez-Lloréns, Raghab Ray, Pierre Taillardat, Joseph Tamborski, Robert C. Upstill-Goddard, Faming Wang, Zhaohui Aleck Wang, Kai Xiao, Yvonne Yau, Isaac Santos
Weather influences survival probability in two coexisting mammals directly and indirectly via competitive asymmetry
Ecologists have studied the role of interspecific competition in structuring ecological communities for decades. Differential weather effects on animal competitors may be a particularly important factor contributing to the outcome of competitive interactions, though few studies have tested this hypothesis in free-ranging animals. Specifically, weather might influence competitive dynamics by alteri
Authors
Austin A Z. Allison, Courtney J. Conway, Amanda R. Goldberg
Decline in small mammal species richness in coastal-central California, 1997–2013
The richness and composition of a small mammal community inhabiting semiarid California oak woodland may be changing in response to climate change, but we know little about the causes or consequence of these changes. We applied a capture-mark-recapture model to 17 years (1997–2013) of live trapping data to estimate species-specific abundances. The big-eared woodrat was the most frequently captured
Authors
Yadav P. Ghimirey, William D. Tietje, Anne Y. Polyakov, James E. Hines, Madan K. Oli
The Landscape Data Commons: A system for standardizing, accessing, and applying large environmental datasets for agroecosystem research and management
Understanding where, when, and why agroecosystems are changing requires quality information about ecosystems that span land tenure, ecological processes, and spatial scales. Over the past two decades, land management agencies and research groups have adopted a suite of standardized methods for monitoring rangelands, which have been implemented at over 85,000 monitoring locations globally. However,
Authors
Sarah E. McCord, Nicholas P. Webb, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Kristopher Bonefont, Joseph R. Brehm, Joel R. Brown, Ericha M. Courtright, Christopher Dietrich, Michael C. Duniway, Brandon L. Edwards, Christopher Fraser, Jeffrey E. Herrick, Anna C Knight, Loretta J Metz, Justin W. Van Zee, Craig E. Tweedie
Comprehensive assessment of macroinvertebrate community condition and sediment toxicity in the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern, New York, 2021
The degradation of benthic communities (benthos) is one of four remaining beneficial use impairments (BUIs) in the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern (AOC), located on the south shore of Lake Ontario in New York. The historical rationale for listing this BUI as impaired relied heavily on inferred or expected impact to benthic communities based on elevated contaminant concentrations in bed sediment
Authors
Scott D. George, Barry P. Baldigo, Scott M. Collins, David B. Clarke, Brian T. Duffy
America's most wanted fishes: Cataloging risk assessments to prioritize invasive species for management action
Hundreds of fish species enter the United States through human intervention (e.g., importation) and some of these fishes pose a substantial risk to the nation’s assets and ecosystems. Prevention, early detection, and rapid response (EDRR) are vital to stop species invasions, but time and resources to manage the large suite of fish species that enter the nation are limited. Evaluating the risk of a
Authors
Emily M. Dean, Audrey Jordon, Aimee Christine Agnew, Nicole D Hernandez, Cayla R. Morningstar, Matthew Neilson, Sara Elizabeth Piccolomini, Brian Reichert, Amy Kristine Wray, Wesley M. Daniel
Reproducibility starts at the source: R, Python, and Julia Packages for retrieving USGS hydrologic data
Much of modern science takes place in a computational environment, and, increasingly, that environment is programmed using R, Python, or Julia. Furthermore, most scientific data now live on the cloud, so the first step in many workflows is to query a cloud database and load the response into a computational environment for further analysis. Thus, tools that facilitate programmatic data retrieval r
Authors
Timothy O. Hodson, Laura A. DeCicco, Jayaram Athreya Hariharan, Lee Stanish, Scott Black, J. S. Horsburgh
Hydraulic properties of sediments from the GC955 gas hydrate reservoir in the Gulf of Mexico
The economic feasibility of gas production from hydrate deposits is critical for hydrate to become an energy resource. Permeability in hydrate-bearing sediments dictates gas and water flow rates and needs to be accurately evaluated. Published permeability studies of hydrate-bearing sediments mostly quantify vertical permeability; however, the flow is mainly horizontal during gas production in laye
Authors
Imgenur Tepecik, Yumeng Zhao, Yongkoo Seol, Adrian Victor Garcia, William F. Waite, Sheng Dai