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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.

Filter Total Items: 174725

Earthquake probabilities and hazards in the U.S. Pacific Northwest Earthquake probabilities and hazards in the U.S. Pacific Northwest

Earthquakes and their cascading consequences pose a significant threat to the people, environment, infrastructure, and economy of the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest is susceptible to three types of earthquakes: deep (intraslab) earthquakes, subduction zone (megathrust) earthquakes, and shallow crustal earthquakes. For each of these earthquake types, earth scientists can...
Authors
Erin A. Wirth, Arthur D. Frankel, Brian Sherrod, Alex R. Grant, Audrey Dunham, Ian P. Stone, Julia Grossman

Spatially resolved source apportionment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) within a post-industrial river catchment Spatially resolved source apportionment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) within a post-industrial river catchment

Source apportionment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in rivers is typically based on water concentrations, which cannot quantify PFAS loads or define geographical source areas. This study applied a river catchment-scale approach to identify PFAS source zones and assess the relative importance of industrial PFAS sources in the River Mersey, UK – a post-industrial, densely...
Authors
Patrick Byrne, William M. Mayes, Alun L. James, Sean Comber, Emma Biles, Alex L. Riley, Philip Verplanck, Lee Bradley

PFAS sampling activities in the U.S. Geological Survey national networks PFAS sampling activities in the U.S. Geological Survey national networks

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), frequently called “forever chemicals,” are used for a wide variety of industrial purposes and are often found in common household and industrial items such as firefighting foams, non-stick cookware, and water-resistant materials. The contamination of water, air, and soil by PFAS is a national and global issue due to their widespread occurrence...
Authors
Melissa L. Riskin, Bruce D. Lindsey, Ryan Conner McCammon

Sundial: A method for inferring image acquisition time from shadow orientation Sundial: A method for inferring image acquisition time from shadow orientation

Aerial photography and satellite imagery can be used to characterize landscape change over time and help to understand how these changes are related to climate and hydrology. Publicly available optical imagery from sources such as the United States National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP) is particularly valuable in this context due to its high temporal and spatial resolution...
Authors
Inhyeok Bae, Carl J. Legleiter, Elowyn Yager

Scenario projections of COVID-19 burden in the US, 2024-2025 Scenario projections of COVID-19 burden in the US, 2024-2025

Importance COVID-19 remains a disease with high burden in the US, prompting continued debate about optimal targets for annual vaccination. Objective To project COVID-19 burden in the US for April 2024 to April 2025 under 6 scenarios of immune escape (20% and 50% per year) and levels of vaccine recommendation (no recommendation, vaccination for individuals at high risk only, vaccination...
Authors
Sara L Loo, Sung-mok Jung, Lucie Contamin, Emily Howerton, Samantha Bents, Harry Hochheiser, Michael Runge, Claire P. Smith, Erica Carcelén, Katie Yan, Joseph C. Lemaitre, Emily Przykucki, Clif McKee, Koji Sato, Allison Hill, Matteo Chinazzi, Jessica T. Davis, Clara Bay, Alessandro Vespignani, Shi Chen, Rajib Paul, Daniel Janies, Jean-Claude Thill, Sean Moore, T. Alex Perkins, Ajitesh Srivastava, Majd Al Aawar, Kaiming Bi, Shraddha Ramdas Bandekar, Anass Bouchnita, Spencer Fox, Lauren Ancel Meyers, Przemyslaw Porebski, Srinivasan Venkatramanan, Bryan Lewis, Jiangzhuo Chen, Madhav Marathe, Michal Ben-Nun, James Turtle, Pete Riley, Katriona Shea, Cécile Viboud, Justin Lessler, Shaun Truelove

Native crayfish shows high desiccation tolerance and potential to outcompete invader Native crayfish shows high desiccation tolerance and potential to outcompete invader

Biological invasions threaten global biodiversity, with aquatic systems being particularly susceptible. Invasive crayfish drive native crayfish imperilment in North America and worldwide. Despite the probable increase in extreme hydrological events, the synergistic effects from invasive species and drought on crayfish are understudied. The invasion of Faxonius neglectus chaenodactylus in...
Authors
Leah M. Bayer, Daniel D. Magoulick

Reservoir operational strategies for sustainable sand management in the Colorado River Reservoir operational strategies for sustainable sand management in the Colorado River

Climate change and increasing societal demands for water pose challenges for the management of dam-regulated rivers. Management decisions impact the environment of these rivers, creating the need to balance societal needs with environmental conservation. Here we present a modeling framework that optimizes resource benefits within imposed water use goals for the Colorado River in Grand...
Authors
Gerard Lewis Salter, David J. Topping, Jianghao Wang, John C. Schmidt, Charles Yackulic, Lucas Bair, Erich R. Mueller, Paul E. Grams

Effects of dietary selenium on the amphipod Hyalella azteca and the midge Chironomus dilutus Effects of dietary selenium on the amphipod Hyalella azteca and the midge Chironomus dilutus

Chronic selenium (Se) water quality criteria are based primarily on dietary organoselenium exposure and subsequent reproductive effects in fish. Available chronic Se toxicity data suggests that invertebrates are less sensitive than fish, but chronic invertebrate studies are limited. We evaluated yeast-based diets for chronic toxicity studies with Hyalella azteca and Chironomus dilutus...
Authors
John M. Besser, Danielle M. Cleveland, David D. Harper, Rebecca A. Dorman, Aida Farag

Habitat features influencing waterbird use of managed wetlands enrolled in a public-private partnership for land conservation: The California Waterfowl Habitat Program Habitat features influencing waterbird use of managed wetlands enrolled in a public-private partnership for land conservation: The California Waterfowl Habitat Program

Draining, water diversion, and development have greatly reduced the availability of freshwater wetland habitat around the world, and many remaining wetlands are on private lands. Public–private partnership programs can be an important means for promoting habitat conservation and management on private lands. We investigated bird use of 117 wetlands enrolled in the California Waterfowl...
Authors
C. Alex Hartman, Josh T. Ackerman, Sarah H. Peterson, Brady Lynn Fettig, Mark P. Herzog

Interrogating process deficiencies in large-scale hydrologic models with interpretable machine learning Interrogating process deficiencies in large-scale hydrologic models with interpretable machine learning

Large-scale hydrologic models are increasingly being developed for operational use in the forecasting and planning of water resources. However, the predictive strength of such models depends on how well they resolve various functions of catchment hydrology, which are influenced by gradients in climate, topography, soils, and land use. Most assessments of hydrologic model uncertainty have...
Authors
Admin Husic, John Christopher Hammond, Adam N. Price, Joshua Roundy

Reduced Atlantic reef growth past 2 °C warming amplifies sea-level impacts Reduced Atlantic reef growth past 2 °C warming amplifies sea-level impacts

Coral reefs form complex physical structures that can help to mitigate coastal flooding risk1,2. This function will be reduced by sea-level rise (SLR) and impaired reef growth caused by climate change and local anthropogenic stressors3. Water depths above reef surfaces are projected to increase as a result, but the magnitudes and timescales of this increase are poorly constrained, which...
Authors
Chris T. Perry, Didier de Bakker, Alice Webb, Steeve Comeau, Ben Harvey, Chris Cornwall, Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip, Esmerelda Perez-Cervantes, John T Morris, Ian C. Enochs, Lauren Toth, Aaron O'Dea, Erin M. Dillon, Erik H, Meesters, William F. Precht

Sources of water and salts for the Zuni Salt Lake in west-central New Mexico Sources of water and salts for the Zuni Salt Lake in west-central New Mexico

The Zuni Salt Lake is located in a maar in west-central New Mexico and contains hypersaline water that has long been used by Native Americans for religious purposes and the collection of salt. There have been several investigations suggesting different sources for the water and salt to the lake. Springs, seeps, and ephemeral streamflow have all been observed to contribute freshwater to...
Authors
Andrew J. Robertson, Jeff D. Pepin, Erin L. Gray, Jake W. Collison, Jeb E. Brown, Andre Ritchie, Grady Ball
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