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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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Evaluating the performance of multiple precipitation datasets over the transboundary Ili River Basin between China and Kazakhstan Evaluating the performance of multiple precipitation datasets over the transboundary Ili River Basin between China and Kazakhstan
The Ili River Basin is characterized by complex topography and diverse climatic zones with limited in situ observations. This study evaluates the performance of six widely used precipitation datasets, CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data), ERA5_Land (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts—ECMWF Reanalysis 5_Land), GPCC (Global Precipitation...
Authors
Baktybek Duisebek, Gabriel B. Senay, Dennis S. Ojima, Tibin Zhang, Janay Sagin, Xuejiao Wang
RAD (Resist-Accept-Direct) switch points and triggers for adaptation planning RAD (Resist-Accept-Direct) switch points and triggers for adaptation planning
Climate change is transforming ecosystems globally. The Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework has gained traction within many natural resource management institutions to help consider the decision space in response to this transformation. Because RAD helps manage for directional change, RAD choices entail considering which RAD pathway to implement and for how long. For example, one may...
Authors
Abigail J. Lynch, Jaime Ashander, Anthony Warren Ciocco, Amanda E. Cravens, Colin J. Dassow, Laura E. Dee, Jason Dunham, Mitchell J. Eaton, Holly Susan Embke, Joseph M. Hennessy, Alexander W. Latzka, David Lawrence, Jeremy S. Littell, Brian W. Miller, Luca Palasti, Michael C. Runge, Gregory Sass, Aaron D. Shultz, Katherine Siegel, Leona Kay Svancara, Laura M. Thompson, Lindsey Thurman, Jackson Brear Valler, Sarah R. Weiskopf, Heather M. Yocum
Evapotranspiration terminology and definitions Evapotranspiration terminology and definitions
Evapotranspiration (ET), the combined process of evaporation from soil and plant surfaces and transpiration from plant tissue, plays a pivotal role in the global water and energy balance. Accurately quantifying ET at various spatial scales is important for diverse applications, including irrigation and natural resource management. While efforts to standardize ET methodology have...
Authors
Kendall C. DeJonge, Richard Allen, Ayse Kilic, Kelly R. Thorp, Meetpal Kukal, Gary Marek, Jon Altenhofen, Devendra Amatya, Philip Blankenau, Sumon Datta, Garry Grabow, Ahmed Hashem, Isaya Kisekka, Jeppe Kjaersgaard, Thomas Marek, Troy Peters, Dana Porter, Michelle Reba, Daran Rudnick, Gabriel B. Senay, Vivek Sharma, Venkataramana Sridhar, Ge Sun, Saleh Taghvaeian, Ricardo Trezza, Thomas Trout
Assessing American eel (Anguilla rostrata) distribution in a heavily dammed watershed using eDNA : The Penobscot River watershed, Maine, USA Assessing American eel (Anguilla rostrata) distribution in a heavily dammed watershed using eDNA : The Penobscot River watershed, Maine, USA
Catadromous American eel ( Anguilla rostrata ) are native to Maine's Penobscot River watershed and historically have migrated through many of its tributaries prior to extensive damming. Recent restoration efforts, including dam removals, have improved connectivity in the lower reaches of the Penobscot River. Characterizing the extent of the American eel's distribution is important to...
Authors
Shawn Snyder, Cody Dillingham, Lara S. Katz, Michael T. Kinnison, Joseph D. Zydlewski
Bridging theory and practice to inform seed selection for restoration Bridging theory and practice to inform seed selection for restoration
Introduction Land managers often face the critical decision of what plant materials to select for ecological restoration. Selection depends on factors that span ecological conditions and human interventions in the restoration process, which can strongly influence the recovery of a degraded ecosystem. Objectives To improve the seed selection process, we compared scientific literature and...
Authors
Laura Cecilia Shriver, Samuel E. Jordan, Robert Massatti, Seth M. Munson
Low genetic diversity in populations of a clonal invasive plant limits sexual reproduction Low genetic diversity in populations of a clonal invasive plant limits sexual reproduction
Premise Clonality, a form of asexual reproduction and spread, is common among invasive plants, though sexual reproduction via seeds is often still important for their long-range dispersal. In small populations, clonality has been hypothesized to interfere with sexual reproduction by limiting outcrossing opportunities of a plant. Methods We developed a structural equation model based on...
Authors
Ian S. Pearse, Zoe Becker, Paul J. Ode, John F. Gaskin, Natalie West
Magnitude, depth and methodological variations of spectral stress drop within the SCEC/USGS Community Stress Drop Validation Study using the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence Magnitude, depth and methodological variations of spectral stress drop within the SCEC/USGS Community Stress Drop Validation Study using the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence
We present the first ensemble analysis of the 56 different sets of results submitted to the ongoing Community Stress Drop Validation Study using the 2019 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence. Different assumptions and methods result in different estimation of the source contribution to recorded seismograms, and hence to the source parameters (principally corner frequency, fc...
Authors
Rachel E. Abercrombie, Annemarie S. Baltay
Sixty-sixth supplement to the American Ornithological Society's Check-list of North American Birds Sixty-sixth supplement to the American Ornithological Society's Check-list of North American Birds
No abstract available.
Authors
R. Terry Chesser, Shawn M. Billerman, Kevin J. Burns, Carla Cicero, Jon L. Dunn, Blanca E. Hernandez-Banos, Rosa Alicia Jimenez, Oscar W. Johnson, Nicholas A. Mason, Pamela C. Rasmussen
Some of these are not like the others: Relative thermal sensitivity among anuran species of the Southeast United States Some of these are not like the others: Relative thermal sensitivity among anuran species of the Southeast United States
Estimating how close a species is to its upper thermal limits (i.e., warming tolerance, a thermal sensitivity index) and how that proximity changes across space enables spatially explicit identification of species with increased extinction risk as temperatures increase. Yet, thermal sensitivity is often difficult to calculate because it is the result of many traits. We aimed to...
Authors
Traci P. Dubose, Chloe E. Moore, Vincent R. Farallo, Abigail Benson, William A. Hopkins, Samuel Silknetter, Meryl C. Mims
Intrinsic and extrinsic factors simultaneously modulated the use of roadways by golden eagles during winter. Intrinsic and extrinsic factors simultaneously modulated the use of roadways by golden eagles during winter.
Animals often face trade-offs wherein foraging opportunities may coincide spatiotemporally with higher risk of mortality, especially within landscapes altered by humans. Resolving such trade-offs can depend on intrinsic factors such as age and sex, and extrinsic factors (e.g., resource availability) within the surrounding environment. Yet both are rarely assessed simultaneously. Roads...
Authors
Joshua F. Layfield, Bryan Bedrosian, Anna D. Chalfoun, Robert Domenech, Stephen B. Lewis, Brian W. Smith, Jerod A. Merkle
Characterizing projected future droughts for south Florida (2056–2095) Characterizing projected future droughts for south Florida (2056–2095)
Balance anomalies, defined as the deviation of monthly precipitation minus reference evapotranspiration from their long-term monthly historical means (1950–2005), were computed for regions in south Florida and temporally averaged over 6- and 12-month timescales to identify meteorological drought events during a historical (1950–2005) and future (2056–2095) period of interest for 40 CMIP5...
Authors
Michelle M. Irizarry-Ortiz, Tarana Solaiman, Carolina Maran, Jayantha T. Obeysekera, Brett D. Johnston
Turning trash into treasure: Leveraging discarded filters for national-scale aquatic eDNA biomonitoring Turning trash into treasure: Leveraging discarded filters for national-scale aquatic eDNA biomonitoring
Monitoring biodiversity changes over large spatiotemporal scales is critical for effective ecosystem conservation and management. This study investigates the potential of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding to enhance national-scale biomonitoring of freshwater diversity by leveraging discarded filters associated with routine water quality sampling from the U.S. Geological Survey's...
Authors
Devin Nicole Jones-Slobodian, Daniel J. Wieferich, Noah Fierer, Joseph Crane, Adam Sepulveda