Articles
Science Quality and Integrity
The USGS provides unbiased, objective, and impartial scientific information upon which our audiences, including resource managers, planners, and other entities, rely.
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.
Filter Total Items: 77863
Prioritizing imperiled native aquatic species for conservation propagation Prioritizing imperiled native aquatic species for conservation propagation
Native aquatic species are in decline, and hatcheries can play an important role in stemming these losses until larger ecological issues are addressed. However, as more federal and state agencies face budget uncertainty and the number of imperiled species increases, it is necessary to develop a tool to prioritize species for conservation propagation. Our objective was to create...
Authors
Molly A. H. Webb, Christopher S. Guy, Hilary B. Treanor, Krissy W. Wilson, Cassie D. Mellon, Paul Abate, Harry J. Crockett, Jordan Hofmeier, Chelsey Pasbrig, Patrick Isakson
Upper thermal tolerances of two native and one invasive crayfish in Missouri, USA Upper thermal tolerances of two native and one invasive crayfish in Missouri, USA
The spread of invasive crayfish requires invaded habitats to be thermally suitable, and differences in thermal tolerances among species could provide thermal refugia for native crayfish affected by the invader. We estimated upper thermal tolerances for the invasive Faxonius hylas and native F. peruncus and F. quadruncus in Missouri, USA, using critical thermal maxima (CTmax) methodology...
Authors
Jacob Thomas Westhoff, Hisham A. Abdelrahman, James A. Stoeckel
Hawaiian volcanic ash, an airborne fomite for nontuberculous mycobacteria Hawaiian volcanic ash, an airborne fomite for nontuberculous mycobacteria
Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are environmentally acquired opportunistic pathogens that can cause chronic lung disease. Within the U.S., Hawai'i shows the highest prevalence rates of NTM lung infections. Here, we investigated a potential role for active volcanism at the Kīlauea Volcano located on Hawai'i Island in promoting NTM growth and diversity. We recovered NTM that are known to...
Authors
Stephanie Dawrs, Ravleen Virdi, Grant Norton, Tamar Elias, Nabeeh Hasan, Schuyler Robinson, Jobel Matriz, L. Elaine Epperson, Cody Glickman, Sean Beagle, James L Crooks, Stephen T. Nelson, Edward Chan, David Damby, Michael Strong, Jennifer Honda
Variable climate-growth relationships of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) among Sky Island mountain ranges in the Great Basin, Nevada, USA Variable climate-growth relationships of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) among Sky Island mountain ranges in the Great Basin, Nevada, USA
The Great Basin is an arid province located in the interior western United States. The region encompasses millions of hectares and quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) forests comprise a minor portion of the total area. However, montane aspen forests play a disproportionately large role in providing ecosystem services in the region, including water retention, biodiversity, wildlife...
Authors
Martin Senfeldr, Douglas J. Shinneman, Susan K. McIlroy, Paul Rogers, R. Justin DeRose
The Coastal Carbon Library and Atlas: Open source soil data and tools supporting blue carbon research and policy The Coastal Carbon Library and Atlas: Open source soil data and tools supporting blue carbon research and policy
Quantifying carbon fluxes into and out of coastal soils is critical to meeting greenhouse gas reduction and coastal resiliency goals. Numerous ‘blue carbon’ studies have generated, or benefitted from, synthetic datasets. However, the community those efforts inspired does not have a centralized, standardized database of disaggregated data used to estimate carbon stocks and fluxes. In this...
Authors
James R. Holmquist, David H. Klinges, Michael Lonneman, Jaxine Wolfe, Brandon M. Boyd, Meagan J. Eagle, Jonathan Sanderman, Katherine Todd-Brown, Lauren N. Brown, E. Fay Belshe, Samantha K. Chapman, Ron Corstanje, Christopher N. Janousek, James T. Morris, Gregory E. Noe, Andre S. Rovai, Amanda C. Spivak, Megan Vahsen, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Kevin D. Kroeger, Patrick Megonigal
Predicting large hydrothermal systems Predicting large hydrothermal systems
We train five models using two machine learning (ML) regression algorithms (i.e., linear regression and XGBoost) to predict hydrothermal upflow in the Great Basin. Feature data are extracted from datasets supporting the INnovative Geothermal Exploration through Novel Investigations Of Undiscovered Systems project (INGENIOUS). The label data (the reported convective signals) are extracted...
Authors
Stanley Paul Mordensky, Erick R. Burns, Jacob DeAngelo, John Lipor
Cursed? Why one does not simply add new data sets to supervised geothermal machine learning models Cursed? Why one does not simply add new data sets to supervised geothermal machine learning models
Recent advances in machine learning (ML) identifying areas favorable to hydrothermal systems indicate that the resolution of feature data remains a subject of necessary improvement before ML can reliably produce better models. Herein, we consider the value of adding new features or replacing other, low-value features with new input features in existing ML pipelines. Our previous work...
Authors
Stanley Paul Mordensky, Erick R. Burns, John Lipor, Jacob DeAngelo
Don’t Let Negatives Hold You Back: Accounting for Underlying Physics and Natural Distributions of Hydrothermal Systems When Selecting Negative Training Sites Leads to Better Machine Learning Predictions Don’t Let Negatives Hold You Back: Accounting for Underlying Physics and Natural Distributions of Hydrothermal Systems When Selecting Negative Training Sites Leads to Better Machine Learning Predictions
Selecting negative training sites is an important challenge to resolve when utilizing machine learning (ML) for predicting hydrothermal resource favorability because ideal models would discriminate between hydrothermal systems (positives) and all types of locations without hydrothermal systems (negatives). The Nevada Machine Learning project (NVML) fit an artificial neural network to...
Authors
Pascal D. Caraccioli, Stanley Paul Mordensky, Cary R. Lindsey, Jacob DeAngelo, Erick R. Burns, John Lipor
Geologic sources and well integrity impact methane emissions from orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells Geologic sources and well integrity impact methane emissions from orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells
The 160-year history of oil and gas drilling in the United States has left a legacy of unplugged orphaned and abandoned wells, some of which are leaking methane and other hazardous chemicals into the environment. The locations of around 120,000 documented orphaned wells are currently known with the number of undocumented orphaned wells possibly ranging towards a million. The bulk of...
Authors
Nicholas J. Gianoutsos, Karl B. Haase, Justin E. Birdwell
Evaluating growth rates of captive, wild, and reintroduced populations of the imperiled Eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon couperi) Evaluating growth rates of captive, wild, and reintroduced populations of the imperiled Eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon couperi)
Reintroduction of species at sites where populations have been extirpated has become a common technique in wildlife conservation. To track progress towards reintroduction success, effective postrelease monitoring is needed to document vital rates of individuals and the corresponding impact on population trajectories. We assessed growth and body size in Eastern Indigo Snakes (Drymarchon...
Authors
Houston C. Chandler, David Steen, Jack Blue, James E. Bogan, M. Rebecca Bolt, Tony Brady, David R. Breininger, Jorge Buening, Matt Elliott, James Godwin, Craig Guyer, Robert L. Hill, Michelle Hoffman, Natalie L. Hyslop, Christopher L. Jenkins, Chris Lechowicz, Matt Moore, Robert A. Moulis, Sara Piccolomini, Robert Redmond, Frankie H. Snow, Benjamin S. Stegenga, Dirk J. Stevenson, James Stiles, Sierra Stiles, Mark Wallace, Jimmy Waters, Michael Wines, Javan Mathias Bauder
Sea-ice conditions predict polar bear land use around military installations in Alaska Sea-ice conditions predict polar bear land use around military installations in Alaska
Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are threatened by sea-ice loss due to climate change, which is concurrently opening the Arctic to natural resource extraction and a broader scope of national security responsibilities. Mitigating the risk of human–bear conflicts is an emerging challenge as many polar bears spend longer ice-free summers on land where they have limited access to food and come...
Authors
Eric V. Regehr, Kristin L. Laidre, Todd C. Atwood, Harry Stern, Benjamin R. Cohen
Hydrothermal monazite and xenotime chemistry as genetic discriminators for intrusion-related and orogenic gold deposits: Implications for an orogenic origin of the Pogo gold deposit, Alaska Hydrothermal monazite and xenotime chemistry as genetic discriminators for intrusion-related and orogenic gold deposits: Implications for an orogenic origin of the Pogo gold deposit, Alaska
Attempts to geochemically distinguish between metamorphic-hydrothermal systems that form orogenic gold deposits and both reduced and oxidized magmatic-hydrothermal systems using isotopes or metal associations have proven ambiguous, particularly for orogenic gold and reduced intrusion-related gold systems. The absence of conclusive geochemical discriminators and the overlap in geologic
Authors
Ryan D. Taylor, Garth E. Graham, Heather A. Lowers