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

Capturing the transient hydrological response in sandy soils during a rare cloudburst associated with shallow slope failures; A case study in the Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, USA

A cloudburst on 7 August 2018 in the coastal bluffs of the Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, induced flooding, erosion and multiple shallow slope failures that adversely affected the surrounding hillside residential area. Historically, short-duration deluges are rare in the New York Bay region, with only eight cloudbursts of greater magnitude documented since 1948. The coastal bluffs consist of a va
Authors
Francis Ashland, Pamela A. Reilly, Alex R. Fiore

Assessment of wave attenuation, current patterns, and sediment deposition and erosion during winter storms by living shoreline structures in Gandys Beach, New Jersey

This study was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey and Northeastern University in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy. This report summarizes field investigation and analysis of waves, current patterns, and sediment deposition and erosion along the Gandys Beach, New Jersey, salt marsh vegetated shoreline and mudflat, where living shoreline structures
Authors
H. Wang, William D. Capurso, Q. Chen, Ling Zhu, L.M. Niemoczynski, Gregg Snedden

A framework for allocating conservation resources among multiple threats and actions

Land managers decide how to allocate resources among multiple threats that can be addressed through multiple possible actions. Additionally, these actions vary in feasibility, effectiveness, and cost. We sought to provide a way to optimize resource allocation to address multiple threats when multiple management options are available, including mutually exclusive options. Formulating the decision a
Authors
Joslin L. Moore, Abbey E Camaclang, Alana L. Moore, Cindy E Hauser, Michael C. Runge, Victor Picheny, Libby Rumpff

USGS National Water Quality Monitoring Network

What is the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Monitoring Network?Understanding the water quality of U.S. streams and rivers requires consistent data collection and analysis over decades. The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) National Water Quality Network (NWQN) was established to facilitate national-scale understanding of surface-water quality conditions through the collection of compar
Authors
Melissa L. Riskin, Casey J. Lee

Geophysical insights into Paleoproterozoic tectonics along the southern margin of the Superior Province, central Upper Peninsula, Michigan, USA

The southern margin of the Archean Superior Province in the central Upper Peninsula of Michigan was a nexus for key Paleoproterozoic tectonic events involved in the ~2.1 Ga rifting of proposed Archean supercraton Superia and subsequent assembly of Laurentia. Interpretations of the region’s tectonic history have historically been hampered by extensive Pleistocene glacial and Paleozoic sedimentary c
Authors
Benjamin J. Drenth, William F. Cannon, Klaus J. Schulz, Robert A. Ayuso

Integrating tracking and resight data enables unbiased inferences about migratory connectivity and winter range survival from archival tags

Archival geolocators have transformed the study of small, migratory organisms but analysis of data from these devices requires bias correction because tags are only recovered from individuals that survive and are re-captured at their tagging location. We show that integrating geolocator recovery data and mark–resight data enables unbiased estimates of both migratory connectivity between breeding a
Authors
Clark S Rushing, Aimee M Van Tatenhove, Andrew Sharp, Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez, Mary Freeman, Paul W. Jr Sykes, Aaron M. Given, T. Scott Sillett

Emerging investigator series: Municipal wastewater as a year-round point source of neonicotinoid insecticides that persist in an effluent-dominated stream

Neonicotinoids in aquatic systems have been predominantly associated with agriculture, but some are increasingly being linked to municipal wastewater. Thus, the aim of this work was to understand the municipal wastewater contribution to neonicotinoids in a representative, characterized effluent-dominated temperate-region stream. Our approach was to quantify the spatiotemporal concentrations of imi
Authors
Danielle T. Webb, Hui Zhi, Dana W. Kolpin, Rebecca D. Klaper, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Gregory H. LeFevre

Slow recovery of headwater-stream fishes following a catastrophic poisoning event

Accidental spills of chemicals and other pollutants can decimate populations of stream-dwelling species. Recovery from such accidents can be relatively fast and complete when the affected stream reaches can be recolonized from upstream and downstream sources. However, faunal recoveries from accidental spills that extirpate populations from entire headwater streams have not been extensively documen
Authors
Mary Freeman, Duncan Elkins, Peter Maholland, Zachary Butler, Maxwell Kleinhans, Jonathan Skaggs, Edward Stowe, Carrie A. Straight, Seth J. Wenger

Geophysical and video logs of selected wells at and near the former Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 2017-19

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected borehole geophysical and video logs in 17 open-hole wells in Northampton, Warminster, and Warwick Townships, Bucks County, Pennsylvania during 2017–19 to support detailed groundwater investigations at and near the former Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) Warminster, where groundwater contamination with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) had become
Authors
Lisa A. Senior, J. Alton Anderson, Philip H. Bird

How does climate change affect emergent properties of aquatic ecosystems?

Emergent properties of ecosystems are community attributes, such as structure and function, that arise from connections and interactions (e.g., predator–prey, competition) among populations, species, or assemblages that, when viewed together, provide a holistic representation that is more than the sum of its individual parts. Climate change is altering emergent properties of aquatic ecosystems thr
Authors
Michelle Staudinger, Abigail Lynch, Sarah Gaichas, Michael Fox, Daniel Gibson-Reinemer, Joseph Langan, Amy K. Teffer, Stephen Thackeray, Ian Winfield

A new addition to the embalmed fauna of ancient Egypt: Güldenstaedt’s White-toothed Shrew, Crocidura gueldenstaedtii (Pallas, 1811) (Mammalia: Eulipotyphla: Soricidae)

The Falcon Necropolis at Quesna in the Nile Delta of Egypt is considered to have been founded by the priest Djedhor, the Saviour, of Athribis (Tell Atrib in modern Benha) at the beginning of the Ptolemaic Period. Recent excavations here have revealed abundant avian remains from mummies dedicated to the ancient Egyptian god Horus Khenty-Khety. Among the few mammal remains from the site are five spe
Authors
Neal Woodman, Salima Ikram, Joanne Rowland

Machine-learning predictions of high arsenic and high manganese at drinking water depths of the glacial aquifer system, northern continental United States

Globally, over 200 million people are chronically exposed to arsenic (As) and/or manganese (Mn) from drinking water. We used machine-learning (ML) boosted regression tree (BRT) models to predict high As (>10 μg/L) and Mn (>300 μg/L) in groundwater from the glacial aquifer system (GLAC), which spans 25 states in the northern United States and provides drinking water to 30 million people. Our BRT mo
Authors
Melinda L. Erickson, Sarah M. Elliott, Craig J. Brown, Paul Stackelberg, Katherine Marie Ransom, James E. Reddy, Charles A. Cravotta