Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Publications

These publications showcase the significant science conducted in our Science Centers.

Filter Total Items: 16783

Global tellurium supply potential from electrolytic copper refining

The transition towards renewable energy requires increasing quantities of nonfuel mineral commodities, including tellurium used in certain photovoltaics. While demand for tellurium may increase markedly, the potential to increase tellurium supply is not well-understood. In this analysis, we estimate the quantity of tellurium contained in anode slimes generated by electrolytic copper refining by co
Authors
Nedal T. Nassar, Haeyeon Kim, Max Frenzel, Michael S. Moats, Sarah M. Hayes

Methods for computing 7Q2 and 7Q20 low-streamflow statistics to account for possible trends

Low-streamflow statistics, such as the annual minimum 7-day streamflow (which is the 7-day streamflow likely to be exceeded in 9 out of 10 years on average [7Q10]), that are computed by using the full historical streamflow record may not accurately represent current conditions at sites with statistically significant trends in low streamflow over time. Recent research suggests that using a contempo
Authors
Luther Schalk, Robert W. Dudley, Annalise G. Blum

Variability in marsh migration potential determined by topographic rather than anthropogenic constraints in the Chesapeake Bay region

Sea level rise (SLR) and saltwater intrusion are driving inland shifts in coastal ecosystems. Here, we make high-resolution (1 m) predictions of land conversion under future SLR scenarios in 81 watersheds surrounding Chesapeake Bay, United States, a hotspot for accelerated SLR and saltwater intrusion. We find that 1050–3748 km2 of marsh could be created by 2100, largely at the expense of forested
Authors
Grace Molino, Joel A. Carr, Neil K. Ganju, Matthew Kirwan

Impoundment increases methane emissions in Phragmites-invaded coastal wetlands 

Saline tidal wetlands are important sites of carbon sequestration and produce negligible methane (CH4) emissions due to regular inundation with sulfate-rich seawater. Yet, widespread management of coastal hydrology has restricted tidal exchange in vast areas of coastal wetlands. These ecosystems often undergo impoundment and freshening, which in turn cause vegetation shifts like invasion by Phragm
Authors
Rebecca Sanders-DeMott, Meagan J. Eagle, Kevin D. Kroeger, Faming Wang, Thomas W. Brooks, Jennifer A. O'Keefe Suttles, Sydney K. Nick, Adrian G. Mann, Jianwu Tang

Stream size, temperature, and density explain body sizes of freshwater salmonids across a range of climate conditions

Climate change and anthropogenic activities are altering the body sizes of fishes, yet our understanding of factors influencing body size for many taxa remains incomplete. We evaluated the relationships between climate, environmental, and landscape attributes and the body size of different taxa of freshwater trout (Salmonidae) in the USA. Hierarchical spatial modeling across a gradient of habitats
Authors
Robert K. Al-Chokhachy, Benjamin Letcher, Clint C. Muhlfeld, Jason B. Dunham, Timothy Joseph Cline, Nathaniel P. Hitt, James Roberts, David Schmetterling

Global environmental changes more frequently offset than intensify detrimental effects of biological invasions

Human-induced abiotic global environmental changes (GECs) and the spread of nonnative invasive species are rapidly altering ecosystems. Understanding the relative and interactive effects of invasion and GECs is critical for informing ecosystem adaptation and management, but this information has not been synthesized. We conducted a meta-analysis to investigate effects of invasions, GECs, and their
Authors
Bianca Lopez, Jenica Allen, Jeffrey Dukes, Jonathan Lenoir, Montserrat Vila, Dana Blumenthal, Evelyn M. Beaury, Emily J. Fusco, Brittany B. Laginhas, Toni Lyn Morelli, Mitchell W. O’Neill, Cascade J. B. Sorte, Alberto Maceda-Veiga, Raj Whitlock, Bethany A. Bradley

Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Predicting invasion potential of sleeper species

Sleeper species are non-native species that are established in a region and could become invasive as climate change makes conditions more favorable for many non-native species. Before we can manage potential sleepers, we must first know their identity. We analyzed non-native, established plants in the Northeast United States (CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT) using the Environmental Impact Classificatio
Authors
Ayodele O'Uhuru, Audrey Barker-Plotkin, Justin Dalaba, Will Pfadenhauer, Amanda Suzzi, Toni Lyn Morelli

Estimating occupancy from autonomous recording unit data in the presence of misclassifications and detection heterogeneity

1. Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs) are now widely used to survey communities of species. These surveys generate spatially and temporally replicated counts of unmarked animals, but such data typically include false negatives and misclassified detections, both of which may vary across sites in proportion to abundance. These data challenges can bias estimates of occupancy, and the typical approach
Authors
Matt Clement, Andy Royle, Ronald Mixan

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

Exposure to crop production alters cecal prokaryotic microbiota, inflates virulome and resistome in wild prairie grouse

Chemically intensive crop production depletes wildlife food resources, hinders animal development, health, survival, and reproduction, and it suppresses wildlife immune systems, facilitating emergence of infectious diseases with excessive mortality rates. Gut microbiota is crucial for wildlife's response to environmental stressors. Its composition and functionality are sensitive to diet changes an
Authors
Serguei Vyacheslavovich Drovetski, Brian K. Schmidt, Jonas Ethan Lai, Michael S. Gross, Michelle Hladik, Kenan Oguz Matterson, Natalie K. Karouna-Renier

U.S. Geological Survey national shoreline change— Summary statistics for updated vector shorelines (1800s–2010s) and associated shoreline change data for the Georgia and Florida coasts

Rates of shoreline change have been updated for the open-ocean sandy coastlines of Georgia and Florida as part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Coastal Change Hazards programmatic focus. This work was formerly within the National Assessment of Shoreline Change project. Shorelines were compiled from the original report published in 2005, recent update reports, and additional light detection and rang
Authors
Meredith G. Kratzmann

Compression behavior of hydrate-bearing sediments

This work experimentally explores porosity, compressibility, and the ratio of horizontal to vertical effective stress (K0) in hydrate-bearing sandy silts from Green Canyon Block 955 in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico. The samples have an in situ porosity of 0.38 to 0.40 and a hydrate saturation of more than 80%. The hydrate-bearing sediments are stiffer than the equivalent hydrate-free sediments; th
Authors
Yi Fang, Peter Flemings, John Germaine, Hugh Daigle, Stephen C. Phillips, Joshua O'Connell