Waning greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. Federal lease coal production by the mid-21st century
Matthew D. Merrill, Paul E. Pierce, Chad C. Meister, Matthew M. Jones, C. Ozgen Karacan, Ashton M. Wiens, Peter D. Warwick, Brian N. Shaffer
2025, Earth's Future (13)
This study presents estimates of future years (2024–2051) United States Federal lease coal production and the resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the combustion, transport, and mining of that fuel. Results from the coal production estimate indicate a decline in production from Federal leases; with known production of 240 million...
Dynamic feedbacks between river meandering and landsliding in northwestern Washington glacial terraces
Shelby Marie Ahrendt, Benjamin Mirus, Sean Richard LaHusen, Jonathan Patrick Perkins
2025, JGR Earth Surface (130)
Landsliding in river valleys poses unique risks for cascading hazards and can damage infrastructure and cause fatalities. In postglacial valleys, many landslides are posited to occur in relation to lateral river erosion, but the dynamics of fluvial-hillslope interactions are not well understood. Here, we investigate a section of the Nooksack...
Performance mapping and weighting for the evapotranspiration models of the OpenET ensemble
Meredith Reitz, J. M. Volk, T. Ott, M. Anderson, Gabriel Senay, F. Melton, A. Kilic, R. Allen, J. B. Fisher, Anderson Ruhoff, A.J. Purdy, J. Huntington
Thomas Ott, Martha Anderson, Forrest Melton, Ayse Kilic, Richard Allen, Joshua Fisher, Anderson Ruhoff, Adam Purdy, Justin Huntington, editor(s)
2025, Water Resources Research (61)
Evapotranspiration (ET) accounts for the majority of water available from precipitation in the terrestrial water cycle, and improvements to the accuracy, resolution, and coverage of ET data can enhance hydrologic models and assessments. The OpenET collaboration of six remotely sensed ET modeling teams has demonstrated that an ensemble approach to...
Declining reservoir elevations following a two-decade drought increase water temperatures and non-native fish passage facilitating a downstream invasion
Drew Elliot Eppehimer, Charles B. Yackulic, Lindsey Ann Bruckerhoff, Jianghao Wang, Kirk L. Young, Kevin R. Bestgen, Bryce Anthony Mihalevich, John C. Schmidt
2025, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (82) 1-19
River ecosystems are threatened by interactions among river regulation, non-native species, and climate change. Water use has exceeded supply in USA’s Colorado River basin draining its two largest storage reservoirs (Lake Powell and Lake Mead). In 2022, Lake Powell began releasing water from its lower epilimnion into the Grand Canyon...
Quantitative subsurface characterization illuminates the origin of the Quaternary Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer
Yuqi Song, Frank T.-C. Tsai, Burke J. Minsley, Chenliang Wu, Essem Heggy
2025, Communications Earth and Environment (6)
The Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer (MRVA) is vital to U.S. food security and global agricultural supply. However, quantitative understanding of its Quaternary origin, architecture, and hydrologic function remains incomplete. Here we develop a three-dimensional hydrostratigraphic model to characterize the deposition of clay and silt, fine-medium sands, and graveliferous sands...
Understanding economic and environmental tradeoffs of bottled water facilities using Structural Topic Modeling and Lexicon-based categorization of public news media
Alisha Yee Chan, Catherine Christenson
2025, Environmental Research Communications (7)
Bottled water facilities exist across the United States (U.S.) in all 50 states and have the potential to affect localities in which they are located. This study aims to understand how water bottling facilities are portrayed in news media in the U.S., focusing on economic and environmental tradeoffs, by using...
Simulated Hydrologic Responses to Proposed Wastewater-Return-Flow Scenarios in Falmouth, Massachusetts
Kendall M.F. Goldstein, Timothy D. McCobb
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5066
The Cape Cod aquifer is the sole source of drinking water for communities on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, including the Town of Falmouth, where the aquifer is currently threatened by contamination from septic-system-derived nitrogen. To address this problem, the Town is proposing to sewer areas of Falmouth, treat the wastewater at...
Consumption of a non-native Walking Catfish (Clarias batrachus) by a Florida Green Watersnake (Nerodia floridana) in Everglades National Park
Carter Haley, Eleanor Lane, Sarah Payne, Gabriella Silva, Matthew Fox Metcalf, Christina Romagosa, Kevin Donmoyer, Lisa Marie McBride, Sarah Rae Sherburne, Amanda Marie Kissel, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Mark Robert Sandfoss
2025, Reptiles and Amphibians (32)
No abstract available....
Low water levels interact with reservoir aging to increase the severity of summertime metalimnion dissolved oxygen minima in Lake Powell, desert Southwest, USA
Bridget Deemer, Caitlin M. Andrews, Robin H. Reibold, Bryce A. Mihalevich, Thomas A. Sabol, Jeremiah Drewel, Charles Yackulic
2025, Inland Waters (15)
Water level drawdowns are common in reservoirs and can affect dissolved oxygen (DO) dynamics via several pathways. In large storage reservoirs, inflow deltas are often important sites for sediment deposition, with some sediment laden rivers forming highly dynamic delta regions as they enter the reservoir. As water levels change, deposited...
Deformity, erosion, lesion, tumor, and parasite (DELT) anomalies in fish communities of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, USA: A regional assessment and potential landscape drivers
Sara E. Breitmeyer, Paul McLaughlin, Vicki S. Blazer, Gregory E. Noe, Kelly Smalling, Timothy A. Wertz, Tyler Wagner
2025, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (197)
Fish diseases in freshwater ecosystems pose significant ecological and socioeconomic challenges, yet monitoring them in wild populations is complex due to interactions between pathogens, hosts, and environmental conditions. We examine the prevalence and watershed-scale landscape drivers of external deformity, erosion, lesion, tumor, and parasite (DELT) anomalies in 57 riverine fish...
Extracting data from maps: Lessons learned from the artificial intelligence for critical mineral assessment competition
Margaret A. Goldman, Graham W. Lederer, Joshua Mark Rosera, Garth E. Graham, Asitang Mishra, Alice Yepremyan
2025, Applied Computing and Geosciences (27)
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA), NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and MITRE ran a 12-week machine learning competition aimed at accelerating development of AI tools for critical mineral assessments. The Artificial Intelligence for Critical Mineral Assessment Competition solicited innovative solutions for two challenges: 1)...
Estimating drivers and identifying uncertainties in smallmouth bass population dynamics in an invaded river network
Lindsey A. Bruckerhoff, Charles Yackulic, Drew Elliot Eppehimer, Kevin R. Bestgen, M. Tildon Jones, Chris Michaud
2025, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (82) 1-24
Smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) is an important recreational sportfish and destructive non-native species when introduced into freshwater habitats. There is therefore a need to understand the drivers of, and uncertainties in, smallmouth bass population dynamics for various management objectives. We combined long-term smallmouth bass catch-effort and early life history data...
Evaluation of the effects of sediments contaminated by industrial discharges to a unionid mussel (Fatmucket, Lampsilis siliquoidea) and a common test benthic organism (Amphipod, Hyalella azteca)
Chris D. Ivey, Jeffery A. Steevens, Ning Wang, Kathleen Patnode, James L. Kunz, John M. Besser
2025, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (44) 3202-3211
Freshwater mussels are among the most sensitive species to a variety of chemicals in water exposures. However, few studies have been conducted to evaluate the effect of toxicants in sediments on mussels. Industrial discharges containing polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and metals entered the Kanawha River surrounding Blaine...
Rupture continuity through intermittent pauses in Cascadia slow slip events
Aaron Wech, Joan S. Gomberg
2025, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth (130)
Cascadia slow slip events (SSEs) are often envisioned as smooth, continuous ruptures, progressively activating tremor asperities as they propagate. Macroscopically, geodetic inversions and spatiotemporal maps of tremor epicenters show steady, uniform migration. In detail tremor is more chaotic and discontinuous. Larger long-term SSEs observed in daily geodetic solutions are inferred...
Mapping ecological states in the upper Colorado River basin: Implications for fire management
John P. Severson, Tara B. Bishop, Anna C. Knight, Travis W. Nauman, Brandon E. McNellis, Miguel L. Villarreal, Sasha Reed, Kristina E. Young, Mark Brunson, Michael C. Duniway
2025, Environmental Research: Ecology (4)
Spatially explicit information on ecosystem dynamics that offers a mechanistic understanding of ecological processes can benefit environmental management. Broad-scale maps based on state-and-transition models provide valuable insight into transitions among ecological states resulting from specific drivers within areas sharing similar climatic and edaphic characteristics ecological sites (ES). We aimed to...
Water-resources inventory and assessment at Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument
Amanda L. Tudor
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5070
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service, prepared a water-resources inventory and assessment for Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument (KAWW). This compilation includes published and publicly accessible hydrologic data and resource assessments of streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, wetlands, vernal pools, and groundwater in and near...
U.S. Geological Survey streamgage network in the Upper Colorado River Basin—Recording the hydrologic history of the Western United States
Brandon T. Forbes, Cheryl A. Eddy-Miller, Ryan C. Rowland, Olivia A. Drukker, Jeffrey Cordova
2025, Fact Sheet 2025-3039
IntroductionWater supply in the Western United States is an essential resource, and the collection of accurate and timely water information is fundamental to effectively managing water resources in the region. Efforts to document the hydrology in the Colorado River Basin are vital to life in the Western United States. These...
Assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources in the Phosphoria Total Petroleum System of the Southwestern Wyoming Province, 2024
Ronald M. Drake II, Jane S. Hearon, Tracey J. Mercier, Phuong A. Le, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Sarah E. Gelman, Benjamin G. Johnson, Jenny H. Lagesse, Andrea D. Cicero, Christopher J. Schenk, Marilyn E. Tennyson
2025, Fact Sheet 2025-3031
Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 3 million barrels of oil and 666 billion cubic feet of gas in the Phosphoria Total Petroleum System of the Southwestern Wyoming Province....
Hydrogeology of unconsolidated and bedrock aquifers along the Salmon River, including Malone, Franklin County, New York
Shannon R. Fisher, John G. Van Hoesen, Paul M. Heisig, Joshua Woda
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5048
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, investigated the hydrogeology of the unconsolidated and bedrock aquifers along the Salmon River corridor in northern Franklin County, New York. The study area covers roughly 147 square miles and includes the village of Malone and...
Density dependence and weather drive dabbling duck spatiotemporal distributions and intercontinental migration
Ben D. Golas, Diann Prosser, Andrew M. Ramey, Paul K. Link, Wayne E. Thogmartin
2025, Avian Research (16)
Understanding migratory waterfowl spatiotemporal distributions is important because, in addition to their economic and cultural value, wild waterfowl can be infectious reservoirs of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV). Waterfowl migration has been implicated in regional and intercontinental HPAIV dispersal,...
The influence of mountain streamflow on nearshore ecosystem metabolism in a large, oligotrophic lake across a drought and a wet year
Kelly Loria, Heili Lowman, Jasimine Krause, Leon R. Katona, Ramon C. Naranjo, Facundo Scordo, Adrian A. Harpold, Sudeep Chandra, Joanna Blaszczak
2025, Limnology and Oceanography (70) 2645-2659
The influence of streamflow can be highly heterogeneous around lake edges, making it challenging to predict how benthic productivity in the littoral zone responds to hydroclimatic change. The degree to which streamflow affects nearshore productivity varies as a function of catchment characteristics, internal lake morphometry, and processes. This study investigates...
Warming Alaskan rivers affect first-year growth in critical northern food fishes
Peyton Thomas, Dylan Blaskey, Yifan Cheng, Michael P. Carey, Heidi K. Swanson, Andrew J. Newman, Cassandra M. Brooks, Nicole M. Herman-Mercer, Keith N. Musselman
2025, Scientific Reports (15)
Arctic and subarctic rivers are warming rapidly, with unknown consequences for migratory fishes and the human communities dependent on them. To date, few studies have provided a comprehensive assessment of possible climate change impacts on the hydrology and temperature of Arctic rivers at the regional scale, and even fewer have...
Reproductive condition of an invasive snake in urban, savanna, and forest habitats
Andrew M. Durso, Shane R. Siers, Robert Reed, Julie A. Savidge
2025, NeoBiota (100) 109-134
Predation by Brown Treesnakes (Boiga irregularis) has caused the decline or extinction of all native forest vertebrates on Guam, including birds, lizards, and bats. Loss of the highest-quality prey has caused shifts in Brown Treesnake size and life history. We sought to understand how reproductive...
Wetlands, groundwater and seasonality influence the spatial distribution of stream chemistry in a low-relief catchment
Caroline R. Weidner, Jay P. Zarnestke, Anthony D. Kendall, Sherry Lynn Martin, Samuel Nesheim, Arial J. Shogren
2025, JGR Biogeosciences (130)
Evaluating stream water chemistry patterns provides insight into catchment ecosystem and hydrologic processes. Spatially distributed patterns and controls of stream solutes are well-established for high-relief catchments where solute flow paths align with surface topography. However, the controls on solute patterns are poorly constrained for low-relief catchments where hydrogeologic heterogeneities and...
Geologic map of the Greater Antilles and Virgin Islands
2025, Scientific Investigations Map 3534
Introduction The geologic map of the Greater Antilles and Virgin Islands is a compilation of information from the literature, integrated to provide a seamless geologic map of the region. This map was prepared to serve as a base map for a mineral resource assessment of the region. Several small-scale regional geologic...