Publications
Browse more than 160,000 publications authored by our scientists over the past 100+ year history of the USGS. Publications available are: USGS-authored journal articles, series reports, book chapters, other government publications, and more.
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Unforeseen plant phenotypic diversity in a dry and grazed world
Earth harbours an extraordinary plant phenotypic diversity1 that is at risk from ongoing global changes2,3. However, it remains unknown how increasing aridity and livestock grazing pressure—two major drivers of global change4,5,6—shape the trait covariation that underlies plant phenotypic diversity1,7. Here we assessed how covariation among 20 chemical and morphological traits responds to aridity
Authors
Nicholas Gross, Fernando T. Maestre, Pierre Liancourt, Miguel Berdugo, Raphaël Martin, Beatriz Gozalo, Victoria Ochoa, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Vincent Maire, Hugo Saiz, Santiago Soliveres, Enrique Valencia, David J. Eldridge, Emilio Guirado, Franck Jabot, Sergio Asensio, Juan J. Gaitán, Miguel García-Gómez, Paloma Martínez, Jaime Martínez-Valderrama, Betty J. Mendoza, Eduardo Moreno-Jiménez, David S. Pescador, César Plaza, Ivan Santaolaria Pijuan, Mehdi Abedi, Rodrigo J. Ahumada, Fateh Amghar, Antonio I. Arroyo, Khadijeh Bahalkeh, Lydia Bailey, Farah Ben Salem, Niels Blaum, Bazartseren Boldgiv, Matthew A. Bowker, Cristina Branquinho, Liesbeth van den Brink, Chongfeng Bu, Rafaella Canessa, Andrea del P. Castillo-Monroy, Helena Castro, Patricio Castro-Quezada, Roukaya Chibani, Abel Augusto Conceição, Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi, Yvonne C. Davila, Balázs Deák, David A. Donoso, Jorge Durán, Carlos I. Espinosa, Alex Fajardo, Mohammad Farzam, Daniela Ferrante, Jorgelina Franzese, Lauchlan H. Fraser, Sofía Laura Gonzalez, Elizabeth Gusman-Montalvan, Rosa Mary Hernández-Hernández, Norbert Hölzel, Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald, Oswaldo Jadan, Florian Jeltsch, Anke Jentsch, Mengchen Ju, Kudzai F. Kaseke, Liana Kindermann, Peter C. le Roux, Anja Linstädter, Michelle A. Louw, Mancha Mabaso, Gillian Maggs-Kölling, Thulani P. Makhalanyane, Oumarou Malam Issa, Antonio J. Manzaneda, Eugene Marais, Pierre Margerie, Frederic Mendes Hughes, João Vitor S. Messeder, Juan P. Mora, Gerardo Moreno, Seth M. Munson, Alice Nunes, Gabriel Oliva, Gaston R. Oñatibia, Guadalupe Peter, Yolanda Pueyo, R. Emiliano Quiroga, Elizabeth Ramírez-Iglesias, Sasha C. Reed, Pedro J. Rey, Víctor M. Reyes Gómez, Alexandra Rodríguez, Victor Rolo, Juan G. Rubalcaba, Jan C. Ruppert, Osvaldo E. Sala, Ayman Salah, Phokgedi Julius Sebei, Ilan Stavi, Colton R. A. Stephens, Alberto L. Teixido, Andrew D. Thomas, Heather L. Throop, Katja Tielbörger, Samantha K. Travers, Sainbileg Undrakhbold, James Val, Orsolya Valkó, Frederike Velbert, Wanyoike Wamiti, Lixin Wang, Deli Wang, Glenda M. Wardle, Peter Wolff, Laura Yahdjian, Reza Yari, Eli Zaady, Juan Manuel Zeberio, Yuanling Zhang, Xiaobing Zhou, Yoann Le Bagousse-Pinguet
Defining the pathobiomes associated with drippy blight in Colorado and drippy nut in California
Drippy blight, an emergent bacterial disease of oaks, was described recently from urban oaks in the Front Range of Colorado, USA. This disease, which causes branch dieback and oozing of bacterial exudates from cankers, is caused by Lonsdalea quercina and primarily affects red oaks, with Northern red oak (Quercus rubra) the most susceptible. Drippy nut is a similar, less acute condition that exists
Authors
Hope Raymond, Rachael Sitz, Ian Pearse, Jorge Caballero Ibarra, Brad Lalande, Jane Stewart
Downstream decreases in water availability, tree height, canopy volume and growth rate in cottonwood forests along the Green River, southwestern USA
Hydrologic stress is increasing in Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii) forests across the southwestern United States because of increased temperature and streamflow diversion. The spatial variability of this stress is large yet poorly understood. Along the Yampa and Green Rivers in Colorado and Utah, vapour pressure deficit and flow diversions increase downstream. To investigate effects of this
Authors
Richard D. Thaxton, Michael L. Scott, John T. Kemper, Sara L. Rathburn, Sabrina Butzke, J. M. Friedman
Bayesian multistate models for measuring invasive carp movement and evaluating telemetry array performance
Understanding the movement patterns of an invasive species can be a powerful tool in designing effective management and control strategies. Here, we used a Bayesian multistate model to investigate the movement of two invasive carp species, silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) and bighead carp (H. nobilis), using acoustic telemetry. The invaded portions of the Illinois and Des Plaines Rivers,
Authors
Jessica C. Stanton, Marybeth K. Brey, Alison A. Coulter, David R. Stewart, Brent Knights
Spatial patterns of seed removal by harvester ants in a seed tray experiment
Using a selection of native grass and forb seeds commonly seeded in local restoration projects, we conducted a field experiment to evaluate the effects of seed species, distance of seed patches from nests, and distance between patches on patterns of seed removal by Owyhee harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex salinus (Olsen) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). To provide context for ants’ seed preferences, we evalu
Authors
Michaela Ray Grossklaus, David Pilliod, Trevor Caughlin, Ian C. Robertson
Projected sea-level rise and high tide flooding at Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida
IntroductionNational parks and preserves in the South Atlantic-Gulf Region contain valuable coastal habitats such as tidal wetlands and mangrove forests, as well as irreplaceable historic buildings and archeological sites located in low-lying areas. These natural and cultural resources are vulnerable to accelerated sea-level rise and escalating high tide flooding events. Through a Natural Resource
Authors
Hana R. Thurman, Nicholas M. Enwright, Michael J. Osland, Davina L. Passeri, Richard H. Day, Bethanie M. Simons, Jeffrey J. Danielson, William M. Cushing
Triangle Area Water Supply Monitoring Project, North Carolina
IntroductionRivers and surface-water reservoirs supply drinking water to most residents throughout the Triangle area in North Carolina. These drinking-water supplies may be at risk because of rapid and continued land use change throughout the region. In partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, several Triangle-area municipalities established a long-term water-quality and streamflow monitoring
Authors
R. Fanelli, D. Hardesty, J. Diaz
Assessing potential effects of oil and gas development activities on groundwater quality near and overlying the Elk Hills and North Coles Levee Oil Fields, San Joaquin Valley, California
Groundwater resources are utilized near areas of intensive oil and gas development in California’s San Joaquin Valley. In this study, we examined chemical and isotopic data to assess if thermogenic gas or saline water from oil producing formations have mixed with groundwater near the Elk Hills and North Coles Levee Oil Fields in the southwestern San Joaquin Valley. Major ion concentrations and sta
Authors
John G. Warden, Matthew K. Landon, Michael J. Stephens, Tracy Davis, Janice M. Gillespie, Peter B. McMahon, Justin T. Kulongoski, Andrew Hunt, David H. Shimabukuro, Riley Gannon, Lyndsay B. Ball
Quantifying the coastal hazard risk reduction benefits of coral reef restoration in the U.S. Virgin Islands
Coastal habitat restoration, especially of coral reef ecosystems, can significantly reduce the exposure of coastal communities to natural hazards and, consequently, the risk of wave-driven flooding. Likewise, reef degradation can increase coastal flood risks to people and property. In this study, the valuation of coral reefs in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), along the coasts of St. Croix
Authors
Camila Gaido-Lasserre, Valerie Pietsch McNulty, Curt Storlazzi, Borja Reguero, Denise Perez, Sandra Fogg, Kristen A. Cumming, Jessica Ward, Steve Schill, Celeste Jarvis, Michael W. Beck
Seasonal drought treatments impact plant and microbial uptake of nitrogen in a mixed shrub grassland on the Colorado Plateau
For many drylands, both long- and short-term drought conditions can accentuate landscape heterogeneity at both temporal (e.g., role of seasonal patterns) and spatial (e.g., patchy plant cover) scales. Furthermore, short-term drought conditions occurring over one season can exacerbate long-term, multidecadal droughts or aridification, by limiting soil water recharge, decreasing plant growth, and al
Authors
Rebecca A Finger-Higgens, David L. Hoover, Anna C Knight, Savannah Wilson, Tara Boyce Belnap Bishop, Robin H. Reibold, Sasha C. Reed, Michael C. Duniway
A robust quantitative method to distinguish runoff-generated debris flows from floods
Debris flows and floods generated by rainfall runoff occur in rocky mountainous landscapes and burned steeplands. Flow type is commonly identified post-event through interpretation of depositional structures, but these may be poorly preserved or misinterpreted. Prior research indicates that discharge magnitude is commonly amplified in debris flows relative to floods due to volumetric bulking and i
Authors
David B. Cavagnaro, Scott W. McCoy, Jason W. Kean, Matthew A. Thomas, Donald N. Lindsay, Brian W. McArdell, Jacob Hirschberg