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The USGS provides unbiased, objective, and impartial scientific information upon which our audiences, including resource managers, planners, and other entities, rely.
Browse more than 65,000 articles authored by our scientists over the past 100+ year history of the USGS and refine search by topic, location, year, and advanced search.
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Using mercury and lead stable isotopes to assess mercury, lead, and trace metal source contributions to Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA
Great Salt Lake is a critical habitat for migratory birds that is threatened by elevated metal concentrations, including mercury (Hg) and lead (Pb), and is subject to severe hydrologic changes, such as declining lake level. When assessing metal profiles recorded in Great Salt Lake sediment, a large data gap exists regarding the sources of metals within the system, which is complicated by various s
Authors
Samuel Francisco Lopez, Sarah E. Janssen, Michael T. Tate, Diego P. Fernandez, Christopher R. Anderson, Grace Jane Armstrong, Thomas Charng-Shuen Wang, William P. Johnson
Mapping river flow from thermal images in approximately real time: Proof of concept on the Sacramento River, California, USA
Image velocimetry has become an effective method of mapping flow conditions in rivers, but this analysis is typically performed in a post-processing mode after data collection is complete. In this study, we evaluated the potential to infer flow velocities in approximately real time as thermal images are being acquired from an uncrewed aircraft system (UAS). The sensitivity of thermal image velocim
Authors
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel, Michael Dille, Massimo Vespignani, Uland Wong, Isaac E Anderson, Elizabeth Hyde, Christopher L. Gazoorian, Jennifer Marie Cramer
Decision analysis of Integrated Pest Management: A case study on invasive sea lamprey in the Great Lakes Basin
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) provides a powerful framework for addressing threats to human well-being caused by nuisance species including invasives. We examined the hypothesis that adaptive management could erode barriers to IPM implementation by developing a decision-analytic adaptive management framework for invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) IPM in the Laurentian Great Lakes of Nort
Authors
Sean Alois Lewandoski, Kelly Filer Robinson, Travis O. Brenden, Ryan Booth, Peter Hrodey, John B. Hume, Thomas C. Pratt, Anne M Scott, Matthew Symbal, C. Michael Wagner, Nicholas S. Johnson
A benchmark for computational analysis of animal behavior, using animal-borne tags
BackgroundAnimal-borne sensors (‘bio-loggers’) can record a suite of kinematic and environmental data, which are used to elucidate animal ecophysiology and improve conservation efforts. Machine learning techniques are used for interpreting the large amounts of data recorded by bio-loggers, but there exists no common framework for comparing the different machine learning techniques in this domain.
Authors
Benjamin Hoffmann, Maddie Cusimano, Vittorio Baglione, Daniela Canestrari, Damien Chevallier, Dominic L. DeSantis, Lorene Jeantet, Monique Ladds, Takuya Maekawa, Mata-Silva Vicente, Victor Moreno-González, Anthony M. Pagano, Eva Trapote, Outi Vainio, Antti Vehkaoja, Ken Yoda, Katherine Zacarian, Ari Friedlaender
Salinity or sum of constituents— Methods comparison for computing dissolved solids concentrations in streams of the Upper Colorado River Basin
The Colorado River is an important water source in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. High concentrations of dissolved solids in the river, sourced mainly from the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCOL), cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damages annually to crops and infrastructure. Determinations of total dissolved solids (TDS) in river and tributary samples often rely on summe
Authors
Fred D. Tillman, Matthew P. Miller, Daniel Wise, R. Blaine McCleskey, Natalie K. Day
Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS) induces hepatotoxicity through the PPAR signaling pathway in larval zebrafish (Danio rerio)
In recent years, the industrial substitution of long-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) with short-chain alternatives has become increasingly prevalent, resulting in the widespread environmental detection of perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), a short-chain PFAS. However, there remains limited information about the potential adverse effects of PFHxS at environmental concentrations
Authors
Haolin Liao, Ying-Jie He, Shuwen Zhang, Xinyuan Kang, Xin Yang, Bentuo Xu, Jason Tyler Magnuson, Shuping Wang, Chunmiao Zheng, Wenhui Qiu
Hypothetical CO2 leakage into, and hydrological plume management within, an underground source of drinking water at a proposed CO2 storage facility, Kemper County, Mississippi, USA
A large Geologic Carbon Sequestration (GCS) hub has been proposed in Kemper County, Mississippi. The target injection interval consists of numerous Cretaceous-aged deep saline aquifers overlain by a competent and extensive regional sealing layer. Above the seal, the deepest Underground Source of Drinking Water (USDW) at the site is the Eutaw aquifer of the Eutaw Group and McShan Formation, undiffe
Authors
Michelle R. Plampin, Matthew D. Merrill
Deformation of Mauna Loa volcano before, during, and after its 2022 eruption
Mauna Loa on the Island of Hawaiʻi erupted on 27 November 2022, the first eruption since 1984, which marked the culmination of decades-long period of non-eruptive unrest and relative quiescence. We briefly describe the evolution of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory’s geodetic monitoring network at Mauna Loa and show patterns of deformation as measured by Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GN
Authors
Andria P. Ellis, Ingrid A. Johanson, Michael P. Poland
Antibodies to influenza A virus in Lesser (Aythya affinis) and Greater Scaup (Aythya marila) in the USA
Scaup, including both Lesser and Greater (Aythya affinis and Aythya marila, respectively), are a grouping of populous and widespread North American diving ducks. Few influenza type A viruses (IAV) have been reported from these species despite a high prevalence of antibodies to IAV being reported. Existing virologic and serologic data indicate that IAV infection routinely occurs in scaup, yet it is
Authors
Harrison Huang, Rebecca L. Poulson, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Susan E.W. De La Cruz, Hutchison Walbridge, David E. Stallknecht, Diann Prosser
Controls on lake pelagic primary productivity: Formalizing the nutrient-color paradigm
Understanding controls on primary productivity is essential for describing ecosystems and their responses to environmental change. Lake primary production is strongly controlled by inputs of nutrients and colored dissolved organic matter. While past studies have developed mathematical models of this nutrient-color paradigm, broad empirical tests of these models are scarce. We used data from 58 div
Authors
Isabella Oleksy, Christopher T. Solomon, Stuart E. Jones, Carly Olson, Brittni Bertolet, Rita Adrian, Sheel Bansal, Jill Baron, Soren Brothers, Sudeep Chandra, Hsiu-Mei Chou, William Colom-Montero, Joshua Culpeper, Elvira de Eyto, Matthew Farragher, Sabine Hilt, Kristen T. Holeck, Garabet Kazanjian, Marcus Klaus, Jennifer Klug, Jan Köhler, Alo Laas, Erik Lundin, Alice Parkes, Kevin C. Rose, Lars Rustam, James A. Rusak, Facundo Scordo, Michael J. Vanni, Piet Verburg, Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer
Imperiled Great Basin terminal lakes: Synthesizing ecological and hydrological science gaps and research needs for waterbird conservation
Terminal lakes are declining globally because of human water demands, drought, and climate change. Through literature synthesis and feedback from the resource and conservation community, we review the state of research for terminal lakes in the Great Basin of the United States, which support millions of waterbirds annually, to prioritize ecological and hydrologic information needs. From an ecologi
Authors
Garth Herring, Ashley L. Whipple, Cameron L. Aldridge, Bryce Alan Pulver, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Rich D. Inman, Elliott Matchett, Adrian P. Monroe, Elizabeth Kari Orning, Benjamin Seward Robb, Jessica E. Shyvers, Bryan C. Tarbox, Nathan D. Van Schmidt, Cassandra Smith, Matthew J. Holloran, Cory T. Overton, David O'Leary, Michael L. Casazza, Rebecca Frus
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Species Management Research Program, Water Availability and Use Science Program, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Nevada Water Science Center, Oregon Water Science Center, Utah Water Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Saline Lake Ecosystems Integrated Water Availability Assessment
Mountain sentinels in a changing world: Review and conservation implications of weather and climate effects on mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus)
Climate change is occurring at an accelerated rate in high-elevation alpine and mountain ecosystems. Cold-adapted, mountain species are at risk due to forecasted change and knowledge is needed to respond to current and future conservation challenges. Mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) are an iconic species of North American mountain cultures and landscapes, and due to specialized adaptations for
Authors
Kevin White, Becky Cadsand, Steeve D. Côté, Tabitha Graves, Sandra Hamel, Richard B. Harris, Forest Hayes, Eran Hood, Kevin Hurley, Tyler Jessen, Bill Jex, Erich Peitzsch, Wesley Sarmento, Helen M. Schwantje, Joel Berger