Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Articles

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.

Filter Total Items: 78870

Effects of human activity on Khumbu Glacier: Towards a sustainable Everest Base Camp Effects of human activity on Khumbu Glacier: Towards a sustainable Everest Base Camp

The Everest Base Camp (EBC), a critical staging area for mountaineers attempting to summit Mount Everest, has seen a significant increase in human activity over the past few decades. The increasing number of climbers, trekkers, and support staff, particularly at the campsite area, has intensified environmental impacts on the Khumbu Glacier. This study investigates the effects of human...
Authors
Khim Lal Gautam, Virginia Burkett, George Xian, Mahesh Thapa, Anish Dahal, Sudeep Thakuri

The saline groundwater legacy of a large buried coastal paleo-estuary The saline groundwater legacy of a large buried coastal paleo-estuary

Elevated groundwater salinity in coastal regions threatens the beneficial use of fresh groundwater. Coastal groundwater management typically focuses on preventing intrusion from modern sources of seawater; however, past geological processes can also leave a legacy of saline groundwater now hidden in the subsurface. Here, multiple extensive airborne electromagnetic surveys provide...
Authors
Burke J. Minsley, Holly A. Michael, Maxwell A. Lindaman, Lyndsay B. Ball, Stephanie R. James, James R. Rigby, Wade H. Kress, Frank T.C. Tsai, Bennett Eugene Hoogenboom

Regional variations in sea ice and primary productivity in the Bering Sea during Marine Isotope Stage 11 Regional variations in sea ice and primary productivity in the Bering Sea during Marine Isotope Stage 11

Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 (424-374 ka) has long been an analog for Holocene climate, because it is the most recent interglacial period with similar orbital conditions. However, there is significant global and regional variability in the climate response to MIS 11 warmth. Here, we review sediment core records from across the Bering Sea to investigate changes in paleoceanographic...
Authors
Natalie S. Thompson, Beth E. Caissie

Constraining sources of mid-Pleistocene to present explosive volcanism in the Gulf of Alaska using machine learning and compositional data analysis Constraining sources of mid-Pleistocene to present explosive volcanism in the Gulf of Alaska using machine learning and compositional data analysis

The long-term eruptive record of a region helps better elucidate magmatic processes at depth as well as volcanic hazards at the surface. Typically, reconstructing such records is done using proximal tephrostratigraphy and linking individual tephras to source volcanoes. These records, however, can only be accurately constructed if they are both well preserved and correctly linked to...
Authors
Jordan Edward Lubbers, Matthew W. Loewen, Kristi L. Wallace

Tracing mercury from land to river: Global sources, retention, and implications for sustainability Tracing mercury from land to river: Global sources, retention, and implications for sustainability

Mercury (Hg) pollution in river systems is a global sustainability challenge. Yet the transport, transformation, and retention of Hg within global rivers remain poorly quantified, particularly in regions with sparse observations such as Southeast Asia and Africa, hindering effective pollution mitigation and reinforcing geographic inequities in scientific knowledge and environmental...
Authors
Peng Dong, Zeli Tan, Peipei Wu, Ruirong Chang, Shaojian Huang, Peng Zhang, Yujuan Wang, Zhengcheng Song, Yanxu Zhang, Ting Lei, Maodian Liu, Beth Middleton, Jianhua Gao, Junguo Liu, Guangchun Lei, Shu Tao

HyFlood: A surrogate-model-based framework for compound coastal flooding HyFlood: A surrogate-model-based framework for compound coastal flooding

Compound coastal flooding is a major threat to low-lying coastal regions and is expected to intensify under future climate change projections. However, modeling the joint interaction of waves, storm surge, tides, and rainfall remains computationally demanding, limiting the development of fast and reliable forecast tools. Here we present HyFlood, a hybrid statistical-numerical downscaling...
Authors
Alba Ricondo, Laura Cagigal, Curt D. Storlazzi, Mark Merrifield, John Marra, Fernando J. Mendez, Peter Ruggiero

Tracking decadal changes in frequent fire activity across the southeastern U.S. (2000-2019): Insights from Southeast FireMap Tracking decadal changes in frequent fire activity across the southeastern U.S. (2000-2019): Insights from Southeast FireMap

Background The dominant natural habitats in the southeastern United States depend on frequent fire ignited by humans or lightning. However, fire activity has sharply declined in the region since the early 1900s, and reduced fire activity has degraded natural habitats and increased wildfire risk. Identifying changes in fire use during recent decades is necessary to guide the conservation...
Authors
Holly K. Nowell, Kevin M. Robertson, Todd J. Hawbaker, Christopher V. Matechik, Joshua J. Picotte, Melanie K. Vanderhoof, Casey Elizabeth Menick, Karen Cummins, Joesph Noble

Biological, environmental, and geomorphological factors influencing reach-specific survival of spring Chinook Salmon smolts upstream of the Columbia–Snake River hydrosystem Biological, environmental, and geomorphological factors influencing reach-specific survival of spring Chinook Salmon smolts upstream of the Columbia–Snake River hydrosystem

Objective Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. are exhibiting catastrophic declines throughout much of the Pacific Northwest, and juvenile mortality contributions are disproportionately high. Many Pacific salmon smolt populations are exhibiting high natal stream mortality; however, detailed natal stream reach-specific survival knowledge is lacking. Our objectives were to estimate natal...
Authors
Scott D. Favrot, Russell W. Perry, Sean W. Kimbrel

Co-producing coastal bird research on the Gulf Coast through structured decision making (SDM) and constructed value of information (CVoI) Co-producing coastal bird research on the Gulf Coast through structured decision making (SDM) and constructed value of information (CVoI)

Conservation practitioners face the complex challenge of addressing global biodiversity threats within social-ecological systems with multiple jurisdictions, numerous interest groups, and changing environmental conditions. Bridging the research-to-implementation gap between scientists and managers, which integrates diverse perspectives that represent the variety of considerations...
Authors
Jennifer L. Fuller, Nicole L. Michel, Kerry E. Grimm, Ashley A. Dayer, Evan M. Adams, Abigail J. Darrah, Auriel M. Fournier, Jeffrey S. Gleason, Jacquelyn K. Grace, Erik I. Johnson, Terri J. Maness, Mary Ann Ottinger, Sarah P. Saunders, Caz M. Taylor, Theodore J. Zenzal

Predicting reach-scale macroinvertebrate community changes due to declining flows in an aridland river Predicting reach-scale macroinvertebrate community changes due to declining flows in an aridland river

Understanding the connection between streamflow and macroinvertebrate community structure is critical for managing river ecosystems under scenarios of change caused by human activities and drought. Streamflow influences physical habitat characteristics, including depth, water velocity, and substrate composition, which structure macroinvertebrate communities. Although strong empirical...
Authors
Justin C. Hockett, Christopher Holmquist-Johnson, Joel G. Murray, Eric W. Kortenhoeven, David M. Merritt, David A. Lytle

Topography-aware registration refinement of Landsat 8/9 L1TP products with Sentinel-2 L1C and NAIP orthoimages Topography-aware registration refinement of Landsat 8/9 L1TP products with Sentinel-2 L1C and NAIP orthoimages

Satellite orthoimage products are widely available, yet residual geometric misregistration across independently processed products remains common, limiting their direct interoperability for multi-source and multi-temporal analysis. This paper introduces a residual Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP)–based, topography-aware framework to further increase the registration quality of existing...
Authors
Jiageng Zhong, Shuang Liu, Xiangxi Tian, Rajagopalan Rengarajan, Aparajithan Sampath, Cody Anderson, Jie Shan
Was this page helpful?