Publications

From 2022 through 2024, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Regional Resources Planning Group (Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Colorado Springs Utilities, Pueblo Water, Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, Aurora Water, and Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District) established a basinwide water-quality monitoring network in the...

Macroseismic data are a key resource to investigate shaking and damage from preinstrumental and early instrumental eras. However, data are often stored as inconsistently formatted reports describing observed shaking and damage, making manually parsing and interpreting accounts labor‐intensive. We introduce a novel workflow using Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro large language model (LLM) to...

The Duck River is a remarkable national resource, boasting outstanding biodiversity (Ahlstedt et al. 2017). It contains 151 fish species, over 60 mussel species, and 22 snail species, many of which are federally listed (Etnier and Starnes 1993; Johnson et al. 2013; Ahlstedt et al. 2017; Womble and Rosenberger 2025a). The Duck River watershed is at a pivotal time in its management and...

Splay, or branch, faults are a common geometric feature of earthquake surface ruptures and may provide constraints on the rupture behavior of an earthquake. The 2023 Mw 7.8 Pazarcık and Mw 7.5 Elbistan, Türkiye, earthquakes are examples of ruptures with multiple small splays, and the Pazarcık earthquake nucleated on a splay fault, the Narlı fault, before rupturing bilaterally on the East...

Forest management planning requires the evaluation of tradeoffs in proposed management actions to meet multiple objectives, including providing the habitat required to sustain wildlife populations. However, various species-specific life history strategies and ecological uncertainties complicate our understanding of the responses of wildlife to disturbances, such as wildfires and forest...

Rationale Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy are independent techniques for determining the isotope ratio R(13C/12C) in organic compounds. However, the lack of suitable reference materials has limited intercalibration of results from these methods.Methods Three high-purity calcium formate isotopic reference materials were...

Lithium (Li), classified as a critical mineral and key in energy storage applications because of its high energy density, faces unprecedented demand. This has driven interest in unconventional sources of Li, especially brines from sedimentary basins. Accordingly, the spatial distribution of basinal brinehosted Li resources across North America is becoming better defined, including the...

Rationale Approximately 3–4 kg of NBS 19 limestone, prepared in 1982 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), serves as a primary reference for the carbon isotope scales VPDB and VPDB-LSVEC and the oxygen isotope scale VPDB. Its consensus values are +1.95‰ for δ13C and −2.2‰ for δ18O measurements. After more than three decades of distribution, the number of units labeled “NBS 19” shrunk...

Urban tree cover (UTC) is a key indicator for monitoring climate adaptation, guiding policy goals, and designing equitable cities. However, consistent UTC estimates remain limited. This study proposes a transferable UTC modelling framework using global open-source data to map fractional UTC. The method involves satellite spectral products and high-resolution canopy height data to build...

Migratory species, and the many cultural and economic values they provide, are declining worldwide. Previous research has quantified ecosystem service flows for single migratory species to provide valuable information on the dynamics of socio-ecological systems to inform cross-jurisdictional management. There are efficiencies in implementation to be gained from considering the dynamics...

Most fish hatcheries and farms raise fish for food, to supply the bait and ornamental fish trades, or to create or enhance recreational and commercial fishing opportunities. Culture methods for these species are well established and are described in various chapters of this book. However, a growing number of facilities are responsible for cultivation of emerging, imperiled, or lesser...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is updating the conventional hydrothermal resource assessment for the Great Basin. As part of this updated assessment, a hydrothermal favorability map is produced to show where geologic characteristics are favorable for hydrothermal resources, thereby allowing the use of conditional statistics (i.e., the likelihood of a resource being present in an area...