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: 78946
Occupancy and activity patterns of nine-banded Armadillos (Dasypus novemcinctus) in a suburban environment Occupancy and activity patterns of nine-banded Armadillos (Dasypus novemcinctus) in a suburban environment
The geographic range of the nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) has rapidly been expanding within the United States for the last 150 years. One of the factors contributing to this astounding range expansion is the species’ ability to survive in and colonize human-dominated areas. Despite the fact that armadillos live alongside humans in numerous towns and cities across the...
Authors
Brett Alexander DeGregorio, Matthew R. McElroy, Emily P. Johansson
Prolonged drought in a northern California coastal region suppresses wildfire impacts on hydrology Prolonged drought in a northern California coastal region suppresses wildfire impacts on hydrology
Wildfires naturally occur in many landscapes, however they are undergoing rapid regime shifts. Despite the emphasis in the literature on the most severe hydrological responses to wildfire, there remains a knowledge gap on the thresholds of wildfire (i.e. burned area/drainage area ratio, BAR) required to initiate hydrological responses. We investigated hydrological changes in the Russian...
Authors
Michelle E. Newcomer, Jennifer C. Underwood, Sheila F. Murphy, Craig Ulrich, Todd Schram, Stephen R. Maples, Jasquelin Pena, Erica R. Siirila-Woodburn, Marcus Trotta, Jay Jasperse, Donald Seymour, Susan S. Hubbard
Seed banks of rare Physostegia correllii (Lamiaceae) in Lady Bird Lake, Austin, Texas, U.S.A. Seed banks of rare Physostegia correllii (Lamiaceae) in Lady Bird Lake, Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
Rare species threatened by climate and land-use change may harbor seeds in soil seed banks for periods of time even if adults have disappeared from the site. Soil samples were collected from sites with current Phyostegia correllii populations and from sites with former populations in Lady Bird Lake (a reservoir of the Colorado River, Austin, Texas. A seedling emergence study was...
Authors
Beth A. Middleton, Casey R. Williams
Shallow and local or deep and regional? Inferring source groundwater characteristics across mainstem riverbank discharge faces Shallow and local or deep and regional? Inferring source groundwater characteristics across mainstem riverbank discharge faces
Riverbank groundwater discharge faces are spatially extensive areas of preferential seepage that are exposed to air at low river flow. Some conceptual hydrologic models indicate discharge faces represent the spatial convergence of highly variable age and length groundwater flowpaths, while others indicate greater consistency in source groundwater characteristics. Our detailed field...
Authors
Adam Haynes, Martin A. Briggs, Eric Moore, Kevin Jackson, James Knighton, David M. Rey, Ashley Helton
Ocean current patterns drive the worldwide colonization of eelgrass (Zostera marina) Ocean current patterns drive the worldwide colonization of eelgrass (Zostera marina)
Currents are unique drivers of oceanic phylogeography and thus determine the distribution of marine coastal species, along with past glaciations and sea-level changes. Here we reconstruct the worldwide colonization history of eelgrass (Zostera marina L.), the most widely distributed marine flowering plant or seagrass from its origin in the Northwest Pacific, based on nuclear and...
Authors
Lei Yu, Marina Khachaturyan, Michael Matschiner, Adam Healey, Diane Bauer, Brenda Cameron, Mathieu Cusson, J. Emmett Duffy, F. Joel Fodrie, Diana Gill, Jane Grimwood, Masakazu Hori, Kevin Hovel, A. Randall Hughes, Marlene Jahnke, J. Jenkins, K. Keymanesh, C. Kruschel, S. Mamidi, Damian M. Menning, P. Moksnes, M. Nakaoka, C. Pennacchio, K. Reiss, F. Rossi, J. Ruesink, S. Schultz, S. Talbott, R. Unsworth, David H. Ward, T. Dagan, J. Schmutz, J. A. Eisen, J. Stachowicz, Y. Van de Peer, J. L. Olsen, T. B. H. Reusch
Adjacent and downstream effects of forest harvest on the distribution and abundance of larval headwater stream amphibians in the Oregon Coast Range Adjacent and downstream effects of forest harvest on the distribution and abundance of larval headwater stream amphibians in the Oregon Coast Range
Forest harvest is a primary landscape-scale management action affecting riparian forests. Although concerns about impacts of forest harvest on stream amphibians is generally limited to areas adjacent to harvest, there is a paucity of information regarding potential downstream effects of forest harvest on these species. We designed a before-after, control-impact (BACI) experiment to...
Authors
Adam Duarte, Nathan Chelgren, Jennifer Rowe, Christopher Pearl, Sherri L Johnson, Michael J. Adams
Hidden Markov movement models reveal diverse seasonal movement patterns in two North American ungulates Hidden Markov movement models reveal diverse seasonal movement patterns in two North American ungulates
Animal movement is the mechanism connecting landscapes to fitness, and understanding variation in seasonal animal movements has benefited from the analysis and categorization of animal displacement. However, seasonal movement patterns can defy classification when movements are highly variable. Hidden Markov movement models (HMMs) are a class of latent-state models well-suited to modeling...
Authors
J. Terrill Paterson, Aaron N. Johnston, Anna Ortega, Cody F. Wallace, Matthew J. Kauffman
Comparing sediment microbial communities of Arctic beaver ponds to tundra lakes and streams Comparing sediment microbial communities of Arctic beaver ponds to tundra lakes and streams
In recent decades the habitat of North American beaver (Castor canadensis) has expanded from boreal forests into Arctic tundra ecosystems. Beaver ponds in Arctic watersheds are known to alter stream biogeochemistry, which is likely coupled with changes in the activity and composition of microbial communities inhabiting beaver pond sediments. We investigated bacterial, archaeal, and...
Authors
Kelly Shannon, Natasha R. Christman, Byron C. Crump, Michael P. Carey, Joshua C. Koch, Laura L. Lapham, Jonathan A. O’Donnell, Brett A. Poulin, Ken D. Tape, Jason A. Clark, Frederick S. Colwell
Modeling global indices for estimating non-photosynthetic vegetation cover Modeling global indices for estimating non-photosynthetic vegetation cover
Non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) includes plant litter, senesced leaves, and crop residues. NPV plays an essential role in terrestrial ecosystem processes, and is an important indicator of drought severity, ecosystem disturbance, agricultural resilience, and wildfire danger. Current moderate spatial resolution multispectral satellite systems (e.g., Landsat and Sentinel-2) have only a...
Authors
Phillip Dennison, Brian T. Lamb, Michael J. Campbell, Raymond F. Kokaly, W. Dean Hively, Eric F. Vermote, Philip W. Dabney, Guy Serbin, Miguel Quemada, Craig S.T. Daughtry, Jeffery G. Masek, Zhuoting Wu
The global wildland-urban interface The global wildland-urban interface
The wildland–urban interface (WUI) is where buildings and wildland vegetation meet or intermingle. It is where human–environmental conflicts and risks can be concentrated, including the loss of houses and lives to wildfire, habitat loss and fragmentation and the spread of zoonotic diseases. However, a global analysis of the WUI has been lacking. Here, we present a global map of the 2020...
Authors
F. Schug, Avi Bar-Massada, Amanda Renee Carlson, H. Cox, Todd Hawbaker, D. Helmers, Patrick Hostert, D. Kaim, Neda K. Kasraee, S. Martinuzzi, Miranda H. Mockrin, Kira A. Pfoch, Volker C. Radeloff
Turbulence near a sandbar island in the lower Missouri River Turbulence near a sandbar island in the lower Missouri River
River turbulence is spatially variable due to interactions between morphology of rivers and physical mechanics of flowing water. Understanding the variation of turbulence in rivers is important for characterizing transport processes of soluble and particulate materials in these systems. We present an exploratory effort to understand ecologically relevant flow patterns using measurements...
Authors
Geng Li, Caroline M. Elliott, Bruce Call, Brandon James Sansom, R. B. Jacobson, Bin Wang
Closing the gap between science and management of cold-water refuges in rivers and streams Closing the gap between science and management of cold-water refuges in rivers and streams
Human activities and climate change threaten coldwater organisms in freshwater ecosystems by causing rivers and streams to warm, increasing the intensity and frequency of warm temperature events, and reducing thermal heterogeneity. Cold-water refuges are discrete patches of relatively cool water that are used by coldwater organisms for thermal relief and short-term survival. Globally...
Authors
Francine H. Mejia, Valerie Ouellet, Martin A. Briggs, Stephanie M. Carlson, Rose Casas-Mulet, Mollie Chapman, Matthias J. Collins, Stephen J. Dugdale, Joseph L. Ebersole, Danielle M. Frechette, Aimee H. Fullerton, Carol-Anne Gillis, Zachary C. Johnson, Christa Kelleher, Barret L. Kurylyk, Rebecca Lave, Benjamin Letcher, Knut M. Myrvold, Tracie-Lynn Nadeau, Helen Neville, Herve Piégay, Kathryn E. Smith, Diego Tonolla, Christian E. Torgersen