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.
Science Quality and Integrity
Science Quality and Integrity
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Mission Area Publications
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.
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Widespread regeneration failure in ponderosa pine forests of the southwestern United States Widespread regeneration failure in ponderosa pine forests of the southwestern United States
As climate changes in coming decades, ponderosa pine forest persistence may be increasingly dictated by their regeneration. Sustained regeneration failure has been predicted for forests of the southwestern US (SWUS) even in absence of stand-replacing wildfire, but regeneration in undisturbed and lightly disturbed forests has been studied infrequently and at a limited number of locations...
Authors
Matthew D. Petrie, Robert M. Hubbard, John B. Bradford, Tom E. Kolb, Adam Roy Noel, Daniel Rodolphe Schlaepfer, M.A. Bowen, L.R. Fuller, W. Keith Moser
Minimal shift of eastern wild turkey nesting phenology associated with projected climate change Minimal shift of eastern wild turkey nesting phenology associated with projected climate change
Climate change may induce mismatches between wildlife reproductive phenology and temporal occurrence of resources necessary for reproductive success. Verifying and elucidating the causal mechanisms behind potential mismatches requires large-scale, longer-duration data. We used eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) nesting data collected across the southeastern U.S. over...
Authors
Wesley W. Boone, Christopher E. Moorman, Adam Terando, David J. Moscicki, Bret A. Collier, Michael J. Chamberlain, Krishna Pacifici
Landsat 9 geometric commissioning calibration updates and system performance assessment Landsat 9 geometric commissioning calibration updates and system performance assessment
Starting with launch of Landsat 7 (L7) on 15 April 1999, the USGS Landsat Image Assessment System (IAS) has been performing calibration and characterization operations for over 20 years on the Landsat spacecrafts and their associated payloads. With the launch of Landsat 9 (L9) on 27 September 2021, that spacecraft and its payloads, the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) and Thermal...
Authors
Michael J. Choate, Rajagopalan Rengarajan, James Storey, Mark Lubke
Combining expert knowledge of a threatened trout distribution with sparse occupancy data for climate-related projection Combining expert knowledge of a threatened trout distribution with sparse occupancy data for climate-related projection
Objective To evaluate the vulnerability of Bull Trout Salvelinus confluentus to potential climate changes across its range in Oregon, we compiled disparate expert knowledge of the distribution of spawning and rearing and combined these probabilistic statements as data along with documented records of breeding and rearing in a joint occupancy model.Methods The joint expert knowledge...
Authors
Nathan Chelgren, Jason Dunham, Stephanie L Gunckel, David P Hockman-Wert, Chris S Allen
A prioritization protocol for coastal wetland restoration on Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi A prioritization protocol for coastal wetland restoration on Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi
Hawaiian coastal wetlands provide important habitat for federally endangered waterbirds and socio-cultural resources for Native Hawaiians. Currently, Hawaiian coastal wetlands are degraded by development, sedimentation, and invasive species and, thus, require restoration. Little is known about their original structure and function due to the large-scale alteration of the lowland...
Authors
Judith Z. Drexler, Helen Raine, James D. Jacobi, Sally House, Pulama Lima, William Haase, Arleone Dibben-Young, Brett T. Wolfe
User engagement to improve coastal data access and delivery User engagement to improve coastal data access and delivery
Executive Summary A priority of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program focus on coastal change hazards is to provide accessible and actionable science that meets user needs. To understand these needs, 10 virtual Coastal Data Delivery Listening Sessions were completed with 5 coastal data user types that coastal change hazards data are intended...
Authors
Amanda D. Stoltz, Amanda E. Cravens, Erika E. Lentz, Emily A. Himmelstoss
White-Nose Syndrome Diagnostic Laboratory Network handbook White-Nose Syndrome Diagnostic Laboratory Network handbook
When responding to a wildlife disease outbreak, managers depend on consistent and clear data to make decisions. However, diagnostic methods for detecting pathogens of wildlife often lack the level of procedural and interpretational standardization that occurs in the investigation of human and domestic animal diseases. This lack of standardization can hamper diagnostic reliability in two...
Authors
Katrina E. Alger
GRiMeDB: The Global River Database Methane Database of concentrations and fluxes GRiMeDB: The Global River Database Methane Database of concentrations and fluxes
Despite their small spatial extent, fluvial ecosystems play a significant role in processing and transporting carbon in aquatic networks, which results in substantial emission of methane (CH4) into the atmosphere. For this reason, considerable effort has been put into identifying patterns and drivers of CH4 concentrations in streams and rivers and estimating fluxes to the atmosphere...
Authors
Emily H. Stanley, Luke C. Loken, Nora J. Casson, Samantha K. Oliver, Ryan A. Sponseller, Marcus B. Wallin, Liwei Zhang, Gerard Rocher-Ros
Cross-continental evaluation of landscape-scale drivers and their impacts to fluvial fishes: Understanding frequency and severity to improve fish conservation in Europe and the United States Cross-continental evaluation of landscape-scale drivers and their impacts to fluvial fishes: Understanding frequency and severity to improve fish conservation in Europe and the United States
Fluvial fishes are threatened globally from intensive human landscape stressors degrading aquatic ecosystems. However, impacts vary regionally, as stressors and natural environmental factors differ between ecoregions and continents. To date, a comparison of fish responses to landscape stressors over continents is lacking, limiting understanding of consistency of impacts and hampering...
Authors
Maria M. Ublacker, Dana M. Infante, Arthur R. Cooper, Wesley M. Daniel, Stefan Schmutz, Rafaela Schinegger
Differentiable modelling to unify machine learning and physical models for geosciences Differentiable modelling to unify machine learning and physical models for geosciences
Process-based modelling offers interpretability and physical consistency in many domains of geosciences but struggles to leverage large datasets efficiently. Machine-learning methods, especially deep networks, have strong predictive skills yet are unable to answer specific scientific questions. In this Perspective, we explore differentiable modelling as a pathway to dissolve the...
Authors
Chaopeng Shen, Alison P. Appling, Pierre Gentine, Toshiyuki Bandai, Hoshin Gupta, Alexandre Tartakovsky, Marco Baity-Jesi, Fabrizio Fenicia, Daniel Kifer, Li Li, Xiaofeng Liu, Wei Ren, Yi Zheng, Ciaran Harman, Martyn Clark, Matthew Farthing, Dapeng Feng, Praveen Kumar, Doaa Aboelyazeed, Farshid Rahmani, Yalan Song, Hylke E. Beck, Tadd Bindas, Dipankar Dwivedi, Kuai Fang, Marvin Hoge, Chris Rackauckas, Binayak Mohanty, Roy, Chonggang Xu, Kathryn Lawson
Thermography captures the differential sensitivity of dryland functional types to changes in rainfall event timing and magnitude Thermography captures the differential sensitivity of dryland functional types to changes in rainfall event timing and magnitude
Drylands of the southwestern United States are rapidly warming, and rainfall is becoming less frequent and more intense, with major yet poorly understood implications for ecosystem structure and function. Thermography-based estimates of plant temperature can be integrated with air temperature to infer changes in plant physiology and response to climate change. However, very few studies...
Authors
Mostafa Javadian, Russell L. Scott, Joel A. Biederman, Fangyue Zhang, Joshua B. Fisher, Sasha C. Reed, Daniel L. Potts, Miguel L. Villarreal, Andrew F. Feldman, William K. Smith
Ring fault creep drives volcano-tectonic seismicity during caldera collapse of Kīlauea in 2018 Ring fault creep drives volcano-tectonic seismicity during caldera collapse of Kīlauea in 2018
Basaltic caldera collapses are episodic, producing very-long-period (VLP) earthquakes up to Mw 5.4, with prolific inter-collapse (between collapses) volcano-tectonic (VT) seismicity. During the 2018 caldera collapse of Kīlauea Volcano, VT seismicity ceased following each collapse, and then accelerated to a quasi-steady rate prior to the next collapse, marking a temporal pattern distinct...
Authors
Taiyi A. Wang, Paul Segall, Alicia J. Hotovec-Ellis, Kyle R. Anderson, Peter F. Cervelli