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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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Wetland geomorphology and tidal hydrodynamics drive fine-scale fish community composition and abundance Wetland geomorphology and tidal hydrodynamics drive fine-scale fish community composition and abundance
Effective restoration of tidal wetlands for fish communities requires clear goals and mechanistic understanding of the ecosystem drivers which affect fish distribution and abundance. We examined fish community responses to abiotic habitat features in two adjacent but dissimilar freshwater tidal wetlands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, CA, USA, each of which represents a potential...
Authors
Justin Kinsey Clause, Mary Jade Farruggia, Frederick V. Feyrer, Matthew J. Young
Facilitating comparable research in seedling functional ecology Facilitating comparable research in seedling functional ecology
Ecologists have worked to ascribe function to the variation found in plant populations, communities and ecosystems across environments for at least the past century. The vast body of research in functional ecology has drastically improved understanding of how individuals respond to their environment, communities are assembled and ecosystems function. However, with limited exceptions, few...
Authors
Daniel E. Winkler, Magda Garbowski, Kevin Kozic, Emma Ladouceur, Julie Larson, Sarah Martin, Christoph Rosche, Christiane Roscher, Mandy L. Slate, Lotte Korell
On-orbit calibration and performance of the EMIT imaging spectrometer On-orbit calibration and performance of the EMIT imaging spectrometer
The Earth surface Mineral dust source InvesTigation (EMIT) is a remote visible to shortwave infrared (VSWIR) imaging spectrometer that has been operating onboard the International Space Station since July 2022. This article describes EMIT's on-orbit spectroradiometric calibration and validation. Accurate spectroscopy is vital to achieve consistent mapping results with orbital imaging...
Authors
David R. Thompson, Robert O. Green, Christine Bradley, Philip G. Brodrick, Natalie Mahowald, Eyal Ben-Dor, Matthew R. Bennett, Michael Bernas, Nimrod Carmon, K. Dana Chadwick, Roger N. Clark, Red Willow Coleman, Evan Cox, Ernesto L. Diaz, Michael L. Eastwood, Regina Eckert, Bethany L. Ehlmann, Paul Ginoux, Marıa Goncalves Ageitos, Kathleen Grant, Louis Guanter, Daniela Heller Pearlshtien, Mark Helmlinger, Harrison Herzog, Todd M. Hoefen, Yue Huang, Abigail Keebler, Olga Kalashnikova, Didier Keymeulen, Raymond F. Kokaly, Martina Klose, Longlei Li, Sarah Lundeen, John Michael Meyer, Elizabeth Middleton, Ron L. Miller, Pantazis Mouroulis, Bogdan Oaida, Vicenzo Obiso, Francisco Ochoa, Winston Olson-Duvall, Gregory S. Okin, Thomas H. Painter, Carlos Perez Garcıa-Pando, Randy Pollock, Vincent J. Realmuto, Lucas Shaw, Peter Sullivan, Gregg A. Swayze, Erik Thingvold, Andrew K Thorpe, Suresh Vannan, Catalina Villarreal, Charlene Ung, Daniel W. Wilson, Sander Zandbergen
Abundance of five sympatric stream dwelling mussels varies with physical habitat Abundance of five sympatric stream dwelling mussels varies with physical habitat
Freshwater mussel species regularly co-occur in streams forming assemblages, but the extent of shared versus unique instream habitat features that contribute to their distribution and abundance is poorly understood. In Massachusetts, a rare species, Alasmidonta varicosa, is often found with four other species: Alasmidonta undulata, Strophitus undulatus, Margaritifera margaritifera, and...
Authors
Ayla J. Skorupa, Allison H. Roy, Peter D. Hazelton, David Perkins, Timothy Warren, Andy Fisk
Constraining magma storage conditions of the Toba magmatic system: A plagioclase and amphibole perspective Constraining magma storage conditions of the Toba magmatic system: A plagioclase and amphibole perspective
Silicic magma reservoirs are responsible for producing the largest explosive eruptions in the geologic record. Petrologic and geochronological data provide evidence for these systems spending substantial periods of time (104–105 yrs) within the upper crust prior to eruption; however, the long-term thermochemical evolution of these systems is not fully understood, as existing petrologic...
Authors
Jordan Edward Lubbers, Adam J.R. Kent, Shanaka de Silva
Intrinsic and extrinsic regulation of water clarity in a large, floodplain-river ecosystem Intrinsic and extrinsic regulation of water clarity in a large, floodplain-river ecosystem
Ecosystem processes in rivers are thought to be controlled more by extrinsic than intrinsic factors, that is, the result of processes that occur upstream or within their watersheds. However, large floodplain rivers have a diverse assemblage of aquatic areas spanning gradients of connectivity with the main channel and internal controls may at times regulate long-term dynamics. When and...
Authors
Alicia Carhart, Deanne C. Drake, James R. Fischer, Jeffrey N. Houser, Kathi Jo Jankowski, John E. Kalas, Eric M. Lund
The 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake: Intensities and ground motions The 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake: Intensities and ground motions
The 1 September 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake was one of the largest preinstrumental earthquakes in eastern North America for which extensive contemporaneous observations were documented. The distribution of shaking was mapped shortly after the earthquake, and reconsidered by several authors in the late twentieth century, but has not been reconsidered with a modern...
Authors
Susan E. Hough, Roger Bilham
Tropical forests and global change: Biogeochemical responses and opportunities for cross-site comparisons, an organized INSPIRE session at the 108th Annual Meeting, Ecological Society of America, Portland, Oregon, USA, August 2023 Tropical forests and global change: Biogeochemical responses and opportunities for cross-site comparisons, an organized INSPIRE session at the 108th Annual Meeting, Ecological Society of America, Portland, Oregon, USA, August 2023
Tropical forests play a critical role in the global carbon (C) cycle. These ecosystems maintain the highest rates of net primary production (NPP) on Earth (Hengl et al., 2017), contain c. 30% of terrestrial C stocks (Jobbagy & Jackson, 2000), and have some of the largest stores of fine-root biomass globally (Jackson et al., 1996), as well as higher fine-root production and turnover rates...
Authors
Daniela F. Cusack, Sasha C. Reed, Kelly M. Andersen, Damla Cinoğlu, Matthew E. Craig, Lee H. Dietterich, J.A. Hogan, Jennifer A. Holmes, Andrew T. Nottingham, Rebecca Ostertag, Fiona M. Soper, Tana E. Wood, Michelle Y. Wong
National-scale remotely sensed lake trophic state from 1984 through 2020 National-scale remotely sensed lake trophic state from 1984 through 2020
Lake trophic state is a key ecosystem property that integrates a lake’s physical, chemical, and biological processes. Despite the importance of trophic state as a gauge of lake water quality, standardized and machine-readable observations are uncommon. Remote sensing presents an opportunity to detect and analyze lake trophic state with reproducible, robust methods across time and space...
Authors
Michael Frederick Meyer, Simon Nemer Topp, Tyler King, Robert Ladwig, Rachel M. Pilla, Hilary A. Dugan, Jack R. Eggleston, Stephanie E. Hampton, Dina M. Leech, Isabella Oleksy, Jesse Cleveland Ross, Matthew V Ross, R. Iestyn Woolway, Xiao Yang, Matthew R. Brousil, Kate Colleen Fickas, Julie C Padowski, Amina Pollard, Jianning Ren, Jacob Aaron Zwart
Nanoscale silicate melt textures determine volcanic ash surface chemistry Nanoscale silicate melt textures determine volcanic ash surface chemistry
Explosive volcanic eruptions produce vast quantities of silicate ash, whose surfaces are subsequently altered during atmospheric transit. These altered surfaces mediate environmental interactions, including atmospheric ice nucleation, and toxic effects in biota. A lack of knowledge of the initial, pre-altered ash surface has required previous studies to assume that the ash surface...
Authors
Adrian Hornby, Paul M Ayris, David Damby, Spyros Diplas, Julia Eychenne, Jackie E. Kendrick, Corrado Cimarelli, Ulli Kueppers, Bettina Scheu, James E. P. Utley, Donald B. Dingwell
Bringing partners together: A symposium on native lampreys and the Pacific Lamprey Conservation Initiative Bringing partners together: A symposium on native lampreys and the Pacific Lamprey Conservation Initiative
A symposium at the 2022 American Fisheries Society meeting highlighted collaborations among biologists, policymakers, and Native American tribes addressing conservation for native lampreys. We present key findings from the symposium and related research and an example of grassroots effort to protect and restore Pacific Lamprey.
Authors
Theresa L. Liedtke, Julianne E. Harris, Christina J. Wang, Trent M. Sutton
Assessing the accuracy of OpenET satellite-based evapotranspiration data to support water resource and land management applications Assessing the accuracy of OpenET satellite-based evapotranspiration data to support water resource and land management applications
Remotely sensed evapotranspiration (ET) data offer strong potential to support data-driven approaches for sustainable water management. However, practitioners require robust and rigorous accuracy assessments of such data. The OpenET system, which includes an ensemble of six remote sensing models, was developed to increase access to field-scale (30 m) ET data for the contiguous United...
Authors
J. M. Volk, Justin Huntington, Forrest Melton, Richard M. Allen, Martha Anderson, Joshua Fisher, Ayse Kilic, Anderson Ruhoff, Gabriel B. Senay, Blake Minor, Charles Morton, Thomas Ott, Lee Johnson, Bruno Comini de Andrade, Will Carrarra, Conor Doherty, Christian Dunkerly, MacKenzie Friedrichs, Alberto Guzman, Christopher Hain, Gregory Halverson, Yanghui Kang, Kyle Knipper, Leonardo Laipelt, Samuel Ortega-Salazar, Christopher Pearson, Gabriel Edwin Lee Parrish, A.J. Purdy, Peter M. ReVelle, Tianxin Wang, Yun Yang