Publications

The U.S. Geological Survey—in cooperation with the San Antonio Water System and the Edwards Aquifer Authority—used data collected during four different periods (March 1955–August 1964, October 1995–September 1996, March 2001–June 2002, and March 2017–October 2022) as part of a new study to refine previously derived relations between the altitude of the water surface of Medina Lake and...

Urban expansion is a prominent threat to biodiversity, particularly for terrestrial mammals, which are significantly impacted by disruptions in habitat connectivity and loss. It can also lead to increased human‑wildlife conflicts that contribute to species decline. Urban public works projects, such as flood control areas, may coincidentally preserve significant habitat, but their...

Across the United States, rural residents rely on unregulated and generally unmonitored private wells for drinking water, which may pose serious health risks due to unrecognized contaminants. We assessed the nature, degree, and spatial distribution of cumulative health risks from inorganic contaminants in groundwater. Our analysis included nearly 84,000 data points from 6500+ wells...

Heat transport in the subsurface is an important aspect of research related to the effects of a warming climate on ecological services (i.e., cold-water refugia); the development of geothermal resources for energy banking schemes (i.e., aquifer thermal energy storage [ATES]); and the effects of temperature on other aspects of groundwater quality, such as nutrient cycling. Historically...

From July to October 2022, a non-eruptive volcanic earthquake swarm occurred within ~15 km of Taʻū Island, located in eastern American Samoa. Felt reports from local residents were the only available information about the swarm when it started, as American Samoa lacked a seismic monitoring network. We developed a consistent single-station catalog for the entire swarm, using seismic data...

Aim Arthropods are under-represented in paleoecological studies but are critical agents in ecological processes. Despite rigorous documentation of diverse arthropod assemblages from ancient rodent (or paleo) middens worldwide, their use for studying ancient arthropod diversity has stalled in recent decades. Here, we review published studies to identify how paleomidden arthropods can be...