Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

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: 175531

Hydrological cycle and water budgets Hydrological cycle and water budgets

In this chapter, we describe the hydrological cycle and each of its components (pools). The hydrological cycle is important to the transport and cycling of nutrients and energy. Quantifying the various components of the hydrological cycle, referred to as constructing water budget for a defined area, is an important framework for wise and equitable water management. The hydrological cycle...
Authors
Dale M. Robertson, Howard A. Perlman, T. N. Narisimhan

Worldwide wetland loss and conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services Worldwide wetland loss and conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services

Aim: Best strategies for future conservation and management to address global and regional trends in wetland loss and degradation are assessed in this article. Main concepts covered: Direct drivers of wetland loss and change include land drainage and filling, hydrologic alteration, degradation from pollutants and sediments, and conversion to agriculture, urban and industrial usage...
Authors
Beth Middleton

An introduction to current climate projections and their use in climate impacts research An introduction to current climate projections and their use in climate impacts research

Using climate projections to evaluate future climate impacts and their associated risks requires a background knowledge of the nature of climate change, use of climate models to develop future projections, and knowledge of how to address climate scenario uncertainty. This chapter provides an overview of climate and climate change, some of the foundational climate science that underlies...
Authors
Jeremy S. Littell

Wetlands under global change Wetlands under global change

Wetlands are among the ecosystem types most threatened by global change, including both climate change and other anthropogenic factors such as sea level rise, urban development, deforestation, agricultural land use, drainage, levees, tidal flow restrictions, pollution, eutrophication, and fires. Wetlands not only store disproportionate amounts of carbon compared to other terrestrial...
Authors
Eric Ward

Earthquakes and tsunami Earthquakes and tsunami

Earthquakes occur as a burst of sudden ground shaking created by the release of accumulated stress along a fault, often influenced by movement of the world’s tectonic plates. Ground shaking from an earthquake can generate additional hazards, including landslides, liquefaction, and tsunami. According to the 2019 “Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction”, earthquakes combined...
Authors
Julia S. Becker, Sara K. McBride, Lauren Vinnell, Wendy Saunders, Graham S. Leonard, Timothy J. Sullivan, Ken Gledhill

Societal values of inland fishes Societal values of inland fishes

a. Aim: To demonstrate the societal values of inland fishes through nine services provided by inland fishes. Each service is defined, key stakeholders identified, and threats enumerated. Diverse case studies (geography, taxonomy, fishery-type) provide examples to highlight the societal values around the world. b. Main concepts: Nine societal services of inland fishes – 1. Livelihoods and...
Authors
Abigail J. Lynch, Robert I. Arthur, Claudio Baigun, Julie E. Claussen, Külli Kangur, Aaron A. Koning, Karen J. Murchie, Bonnie Myers, Gretchen L. Stokes, Ralph William Tingley, So-Jung Youn

Selenium in the Kootenai River Basin, Montana and Idaho, United States, and British Columbia, Canada Selenium in the Kootenai River Basin, Montana and Idaho, United States, and British Columbia, Canada

Selenium entering the 90-mile long transboundary Koocanusa Reservoir (also called Lake Koocanusa) in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, and northwestern Montana, United States, has been measured at concentrations above State and Federal water-quality and aquatic life standards. The reservoir is within the international Kootenai (or “Kootenay” in Canada) drainage basin, which contains...
Authors

Intrapopulation differences in polar bear movement and step selection patterns Intrapopulation differences in polar bear movement and step selection patterns

Background The spatial ecology of individuals often varies within a population or species. Identifying how individuals in different classes interact with their environment can lead to a better understanding of population responses to human activities and environmental change and improve population estimates. Most inferences about polar bear (Ursus maritimus) spatial ecology are based on...
Authors
Ryan R. Wilson, Michelle St Martin, Eric V. Regehr, Karyn D. Rode

Environmental drivers of cyanobacterial abundance and cyanotoxin production in backwaters of the Upper Mississippi River Environmental drivers of cyanobacterial abundance and cyanotoxin production in backwaters of the Upper Mississippi River

High densities of cyanobacteria in aquatic ecosystems can cause impacts to ecosystem services because they serve as a poor-quality food resource, produce toxins and can indirectly cause a variety of other negative impacts to water quality. There are many hypotheses about the potential environmental drivers of variation in cyanobacterial abundance and toxicity, but these hypotheses have...
Authors
Shawn M. Giblin, James H. Larson, Jeremy D. King

Cryptic extinction risk in a western Pacific lizard radiation Cryptic extinction risk in a western Pacific lizard radiation

Cryptic ecologies, the Wallacean Shortfall of undocumented species’ geographical ranges and the Linnaean Shortfall of undescribed diversity, are all major barriers to conservation assessment. When these factors overlap with drivers of extinction risk, such as insular distributions, the number of threatened species in a region or clade may be underestimated, a situation we term ‘cryptic...
Authors
Peter J. McDonald, Rafe M. Brown, Frederick Kraus, Philip Bowles, Umilaela Arifin, Samuel J Eliades, Robert N. Fisher, Maren Gaulke, L Lee Grismer, Ivan Ineich, Benjamin R. Karin, Camila G Meneses, Stephen J Richards, Marites B Sanguila, Cameron D Siler, Paul M. Oliver

Linking capture–recapture and movement Linking capture–recapture and movement

No abstract available.
Authors
Sarah J. Converse, Brett T. McClintock, Paul B. Conn

Greenhouse gas balances in coastal ecosystems: Current challenges in “blue carbon” estimation and significance to national greenhouse gas inventories Greenhouse gas balances in coastal ecosystems: Current challenges in “blue carbon” estimation and significance to national greenhouse gas inventories

Coastal wetlands are defined herein as inundated, vegetated ecosystems with hydrology, and biogeochemistry influenced by sea levels, at timescales of tides to millennia. Coastal wetlands are necessary components of global greenhouse gas estimation and scenario modeling, both for continental and oceanic mass balances. The carbon pools and fluxes on coastal lands, especially those...
Authors
Lisamarie Windham-Myers, James R. Holmquist, Kevin D. Kroeger, Tiffany G. Troxler
Was this page helpful?