Publications
These publications showcase the significant science conducted in our Science Centers.
Filter Total Items: 16783
Contribution of deep-sourced carbon from hydrocarbon seeps to sedimentary organic carbon: Evidence from radiocarbon and stable isotope geochemistry
Sulfate-driven anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) limits the release of methane from marine sediments and promotes the formation of carbonates close to the seafloor in seepage areas along continental margins. It has been established that hydrocarbon seeps are a source of methane, dissolved inorganic carbon, and dissolved organic carbon to marine environments. However, questions remain about the
Authors
Dong Feng, John Pohlman, Jorn Peckmann, Yuedong Sun, Yu Hu, Harry Roberts, Duofu Chen
Hydrogeology and gain/loss assessment of two lakes contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, vicinity of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, 2020–21
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been identified in two lakes near Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JBMDL) in New Jersey—Little Pine Lake in Pemberton Township and Pine Lake in Manchester Township. The streams that enter these lakes begin in or near JBMDL where sources of PFAS contamination are located. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Air Force Civil Engine
Authors
Alex R. Fiore, Christopher M. Witzigman, Robert G. Reiser
Earthquake magnitude distributions on northern Caribbean faults from combinatorial optimization models
On-fault earthquake magnitude distributions are calculated for northern Caribbean faults using estimates of fault slip and regional seismicity parameters. Integer programming, a combinatorial optimization method, is used to determine the optimal spatial arrangement of earthquakes sampled from a truncated Gutenberg-Richter distribution that minimizes the global misfit in slip rates on a complex fau
Authors
Eric L. Geist, Uri S. ten Brink
Delineation of areas contributing groundwater and travel times to receiving waters in Kings, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk Counties, New York
To assist resource managers and planners in developing informed strategies to address nitrogen loading to coastal water bodies of Long Island, New York, the U.S. Geological Survey and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation initiated a program to delineate areas contributing groundwater to coastal water bodies by assembling a comprehensive dataset of areas contributing groundwater,
Authors
Paul E. Misut, Nicole A. Casamassina, Donald A. Walter
Machine learning can assign geologic basin to produced water samples using major ion geochemistry
Understanding the geochemistry of waters produced during petroleum extraction is essential to informing the best treatment and reuse options, which can potentially be optimized for a given geologic basin. Here, we used the US Geological Survey’s National Produced Waters Geochemical Database (PWGD) to determine if major ion chemistry could be used to classify accurately a produced water sample to a
Authors
Jenna L. Shelton, Aaron M. Jubb, Samuel Saxe, Emil D. Attanasi, Alexei Milkov, Mark A Engle, Philip A. Freeman, Christopher Shaffer, Madalyn S. Blondes
Optimization of salt marsh management at the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Maine, through use of structured decision making
Structured decision making is a systematic, transparent process for improving the quality of complex decisions by identifying measurable management objectives and feasible management actions; predicting the potential consequences of management actions relative to the stated objectives; and selecting a course of action that maximizes the total benefit achieved and balances tradeoffs among objective
Authors
Hilary A. Neckles, James E. Lyons, Jessica L. Nagel, Susan C. Adamowicz, Toni Mikula, Kathleen M. O'Brien, Bri Benvenuti, Ryan Kleinert
National assessment of helium resources within known natural gas reservoirs
Using available data, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that 306 billion cubic feet of recoverable helium is presently within the known geologic natural gas reservoirs of the United States.
Authors
Sean T. Brennan, Jennifer L. Rivera, Brian A. Varela, Andy J. Park
Populations using public-supply groundwater in the conterminous U.S. 2010; Identifying the wells, hydrogeologic regions, and hydrogeologic mapping units
Most Americans receive their drinking water from publicly supplied sources, a large portion of it from groundwater. Mapping these populations consistently and at a high resolution is important for understanding where the resource is used and needs to be protected. The results show that 269 million people are supplied by public supply, 107 million are supplied by groundwater and 162 million are sup
Authors
Tyler D. Johnson, Kenneth Belitz, Leon J. Kauffman, Elise Watson, John T. Wilson
Culverts delay upstream and downstream migrations of river herring (Alosa spp.)
Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis) are iteroparous anadromous fish found throughout the East Coast of North America. The phenology of anadromous fish migrations is important for fitness, and the duration of spawning migrations has been compressed in recent years in response to climate change. Anthropogenic barriers to movement, such as dams and culverts at road-
Authors
Derrick Alcott, Elsa Goerig, Theodore R. Castro-Santos
Methods for estimating regional skewness of annual peak flows in parts of eastern New York and Pennsylvania, based on data through water year 2013
Bulletin 17C (B17C) recommends fitting the log-Pearson Type III (LP−III) distribution to a series of annual peak flows at a streamgage by using the method of moments. The third moment, the skewness coefficient (or skew), is important because the magnitudes of annual exceedance probability (AEP) flows estimated by using the LP–III distribution are affected by the skew; interest is focused on the ri
Authors
Andrea G. Veilleux, Daniel M. Wagner
Evaluating the impact of watershed development and climate change on stream ecosystems: A Bayesian network modeling approach
A continuous-variable Bayesian network (cBN) model is used to link watershed development and climate change to stream ecosystem indicators. A graphical model, reflecting our understanding of the connections between climate change, weather condition, loss of natural land cover, stream flow characteristics, and stream ecosystem indicators is used as the basis for selecting flow metrics for predictin
Authors
Song S. Qian, Jonathan Kennen, Jason May, Mary Freeman, Thomas F Cuffney
Survival and spawning success of American shad (Alosa sapidissima) in varying temperatures and levels of glochidia infection
Temperature fluctuations and climate change impacts may substantially affect spawning success of fish, especially migratory species with a limited spawning window. Factors affecting American shad (Alosa sapidissima) spawning success and survival were investigated at different temperatures and periods (peak- and late-spawning periods) during the Connecticut River, USA, spawning migration in 2017. W
Authors
Shannon M Bayse, Amy M. Regish, Stephen D. McCormick