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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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Mission Area Publications

We are focused on some of the most significant issues society faces, and our science is making a substantial contribution to the well-being of the Nation and the world. Learn more about the major topics our research covers and the programs focused on those topics.

Explore Mission Areas
Filter Total Items: 6062

Colorado River Basin

The Colorado River is often referred to as “the lifeblood of the west.” The basin supplies municipal water to nearly 40 million people and irrigates approximately 22,000 km2 of agricultural lands. Twenty-two major rivers converge with the Colorado after it begins its descent from the Rocky Mountains and winds through the plateaus of Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, onto the deserts of southwestern Ari
Authors
Anya Metcalfe, Jeffrey Muehlbauer, Morgan Ford, Theodore Kennedy
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Southwest Biological Science Center

Geology along the Yuba Pass and Highway 70 corridors: A complex history of tectonics and magmatism in the northern Sierra Nevada

This field trip traverses a cross section of northern Sierra Nevada geology and landscape along two major corridors, Highway 49 (Yuba Pass) and Highway 70. These highways, and adjacent roadways, offer roadcuts, outcrops, and overviews through diverse pre-Cenozoic metamorphic rocks along the Laurentian margin, Mesozoic batholithic rocks, and Miocene volcanic rocks. Observing this array of rocks on
Authors
Michelle Roberts, Victoria Langenheim, Richard A. Schweickert, Richard E. Hanson
By
Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Rivers of the Lower Mississippi Basin

Discussed in this chapter are seven significant tributaries of the Lower Mississippi River and its major distributary. As a group, these eight rivers and their basins encompass substantial variation in physical form, hydrology, biota, ecology, and human impacts. The Current River, Ouachita River, and Saline River, flow to the Mississippi out of the U.S. Interior Highlands. The Cache River basin, c
Authors
C. Ochs, J.J. Baustian, A. Harrison, P. Hartfield, C.S. Johnston, Catherine A. Justis, D. Larsen, A. Mickelson, B. Piazza, Jonathan J. Spurgeon
By
Cooperative Research Units

Rivers of Arctic North America

This chapter describes the geomorphology, hydrology, chemistry, biodiversity, and ecology of rivers in the North American Arctic. The history, physiography, climate, and land use of the Arctic regions are also described. The chapter includes details on the Kobuk and Colville rivers in Alaska, the Thelon and Kazan rivers in the central Canadian Arctic, Koroc River and Nakvak Brook in the eastern Ca
Authors
Jennifer Lento, Sarah M. Laske, Eric Luiker, Joseph M. Culp, Leslie Jones, Christian E. Zimmerman, Wendy Monk
By
Alaska Science Center

Ice resource mapping on Mars

This chapter explains the rationale for considering shallowly buried (0 to >5 m depth) water ice in the mid-latitudes of Mars as a resource to support future human missions, and describes a NASA-funded effort to map that ice with existing orbital remote-sensing data. In recent decades, numerous studies have used various datasets to investigate the presence and stability of water ice in the Martian
Authors
Nathaniel E Putzig, Gareth A Morgan, Hanna G Sizemore, David M Hollibaugh Baker, Eric I Petersen, Asmin V Pathare, Colin M. Dundas, Ali M Bramson, Samuel W Courville, Matthew R Perry, Stefano Nerozzi, Zachary M Bain, Rachel H Hoover, Bruce A Campbell, Marco Mastrogiuseppe, Michael T. Mellon, Roberto Seu, Isaac B. Smith
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Astrogeology Science Center

Management of vampire bats and rabies: Past, present, and future

Rabies virus transmitted via the bite of common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) has surpassed canine-associated cases as the predominant cause of human rabies in Latin America. Cattle, the preferred prey of D. rotundus, suffer extensive mortality from vampire bat associated rabies, with annual financial losses estimated in the tens of millions of dollars. Organized attempts to manage or curtail v
Authors
Tonie E. Rocke, Daniel G. Streicker, Ariel Elizabeth Leon
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, National Wildlife Health Center

Population Monitoring

No abstract available.
Authors
J. Joshua Nowak, Mark A. Hurley, Paul M Lukacs, Daniel P. Walsh, C. LeAnn White
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, National Wildlife Health Center

Planktic foraminifera

Planktic foraminifera are single-celled marine organisms that secrete calcium carbonate tests. They live in the ocean's photic zone, and when they die, their tests, each about the size of a grain of sand, collect on the ocean floor. The geographic distribution of planktic foraminifera is mostly governed by the temperature and salinity of the ocean surface, and species assemblages are generally arr
Authors
Harry J. Dowsett, Marci M. Robinson
By
Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

Foreword

No abstract available.
Authors
Xiaogang Ma, Matty Mookerjee, Leslie Hsu, Denise Hills
By
Science Synthesis, Analysis and Research Program, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program

Ecological significance of Wild Huckleberries (Vaccinium membranaceum)

Wild huckleberry (Vaccinium globare/membranaceum complex) is a keystone species in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The fruits are a primary food source for grizzly bears and other wildlife, as well as an important traditional and contemporary human food. Huckleberry shrubs also provide cover and nesting habitat for many animal species, including small mammals and birds. The flowers pro
Authors
Janene Lichtenberg, Tabitha Graves
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center

Pollen records, postglacial: Southeastern North America

Pollen records from the unglaciated southeastern region of North America provide an overview of biogeographic changes associated with vegetational migration northward following the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Changing insolation during the Holocene affected forest composition on the Coastal Plain, and rising sea level controlled the distribution of marsh and forested wetlands throughout t
Authors
Debra A. Willard
By
Climate Research and Development Program, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

Endangered Klamath suckers

Since Lost River suckers (Deltistes luxatus) and shortnose suckers (Chasmistes brevirostris) hatched in the early 1990s, almost none of the fish have survived to adulthood. When full grown, Lost River suckers are the largest of the Klamath suckers, averaging about two and a half feet long, whereas shortnose suckers are at around twenty-one inches. Rather than an inability to spawn, these species a

Authors
Summer M. Burdick
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Western Fisheries Research Center, Klamath Falls Field Station (KFFS)
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