Publications

Waste constituents discharged to the eastern Snake River Plain aquifer at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) pose risks to the water quality of the aquifer. To understand these risks, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the DOE, used geochemical mass-balance modeling to identify three-dimensional hydrologic processes in that portion of the...

The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai (HTHH) volcanic eruption in January 2022 generated catastrophic tsunami and contends for the largest natural explosion in more than a century. The main island, Tongatapu, suffered waves up to 17 m, and Tofua Island suffered waves up to 45 m, comfortably placing HTHH in the “megatsunami” league. We present a tsunami simulation of the Tongan Archipelago...

The Colorado River ecosystem has experienced habitat alterations and non-native species invasions, and as a result, many of its native species have experienced extirpations, abundance declines, and range constrictions. Despite these pitfalls, Humpback Chub, Gila cypha, have persisted and, in the last 10-15 years, expanded their range to become abundant in western Grand Canyon, a river...

Prediction of short- (i.e., aquifer is near or at saturated conditions) and long-time (i.e., aquifer is not near or at saturated conditions) baseflow recession characteristics at ungauged stream locations is a current challenge that has been primarily addressed by empirical approaches that relate these characteristics to basin attributes. However, the performance of these models is often...

Changes in riparian vegetation cover and composition occur in relation to flow regime, geomorphic template, and climate, and can have cascading effects on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Tracking such changes over time is therefore an important part of monitoring the condition and trajectory of riparian ecosystems. Maintaining diverse, self-sustaining riparian vegetation comprised of...

Phytoplankton are an important and limiting food source in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay in California. Decreasing phytoplankton biomass is one possible factor for the pelagic organism decline and the decline of the protected Hypomesus transpacificus (delta smelt). Bivalves Corbicula fluminea and Potamocorbula amurensis (hereafter C. fluminea and P. amurensis...

Nature-based features, also called living shorelines, are increasingly applied in coastal protection and restoration. However, the processes and mechanisms (feedbacks and interactions) of wave attenuation, current velocity change, and sediment deposition and erosion along the living shoreline remain unclear, thus limiting the adaptive management of living shoreline restoration projects...

Incorporating species distributions into conservation planning has traditionally involved long-term representations of habitat use where temporal variation is averaged to reveal habitats that are most suitable across time. Advances in remote sensing and analytical tools have allowed for the integration of dynamic processes into species distribution modeling. Our objective was to develop...

Context: From landscape variables to weather, multiple environmental factors affect honey bees and other pollinators. Detailed honey bee colony assessments in a variety of landscape and weather conditions offer the opportunity to develop a mechanistic understanding of how landscape composition, configuration, and weather are associated with colony nutrition, demography, and productivity...

Fossils in the order Sirenia (family Dugongidae) from Santa Rosa Island, part of Channel Islands National Park in southern California, provide rare temporal and spatial links between earlier and later evolutionary forms of dugongids, and add information about their dispersal into the northeastern Pacific region. Marine sedimentary rocks containing these fossils have characteristics of...

1.The transformations of fish assemblages caused by reservoir cascades can be severe at the reach scale, but basin-scale effects are less clear. However, prevailing river concepts provide a framework for predicting basin-scale effects. 2. To determine if predictions made by the River Continuum Concept relative to the function of fish assemblages are sustained in a temperate river...

The international pet and aquarium trade, and intentional or unintentional release of those pets by individuals, has contributed to the establishment of many species to areas where they are not native, resulting in detrimental consequences to local ecosystems, economies, and livelihoods. A number of outreach campaigns across the United States aim to communicate the risk of non-native pet...