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Public land managers often conduct rehabilitation and restoration actions to achieve desired conditions or specific natural resource objectives. These “land treatments” include a variety of techniques, such as biomass removal or manipulation, seeding, and herbicide application. Limited information exists on the costs of conducting many common types of land treatments,...

We described abundance and source of soft, fine-grained, streambed sediment and associated phosphorus (sed-P) during summer low flow in Little Flatrock Creek (LFR), a channelized tributary of the Maumee River and western Lake Erie. Reach-level assessments compared streambed-sediment storage to streambank erosion. Streambed sediment was fingerprinted and analyzed for sed-P...

The Mountain Pass carbonatite stock is the largest rare earth element (REE) deposit and only active REE mine in the United States. The carbonatite intrusion and spatially associated alkaline silicate intrusions constitute the Mountain Pass Intrusive Suite, which is located within the Mojave Province in California. Both the carbonatite and...

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean resources of 61 million barrels of oil and 240 billion cubic feet of gas in the Los Angeles Basin Province....

We investigated how visitors to federal, state, and local parks and protected areas (PPAs) respond to weather and air quality conditions in the Pacific Northwest (PNW), United States. Specifically, we modeled the relationship between weekly visitation and mean weekly minimum and maximum temperature, precipitation, Air Quality Index (AQI), and particulate...

In 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) carried out a hydraulic study within the upper Delaware River Basin for the purpose of determining the time of travel for water releases from the Brookfield Renewable U.S. hydroelectric plant at Lake Wallenpaupack, Pennsylvania, to reach the USGS streamgage located on the Delaware...

The impoundment of Lake Conroe in 1973 created an important water resource for greater Houston, Texas. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the San Jacinto River Authority, analyzed water-quality data collected from 1974 to 2021 at upreservoir, mid-reservoir, and downreservoir sites in Lake Conroe. Water-column and seasonal variability of...

We present major and trace element whole-rock geochemistry of 94 samples from the Bronson Hill arc (BHA) and Connecticut Valley–Gaspé trough (CVGT). These data, when combined with recent zircon U-Pb geochronology and a reexamination of existing whole-rock geochemistry, enable a new analysis of the tectonic history of the ancient Laurentian-Ganderian...

ulturally, economically, and nutritionally valuable inland fisheries face many new challenges on top of chronic disturbances. In the upper midwestern United States, declines in cool- and coldwater fisheries have been observed, including ogaa/walleye Sander vitreus. In response to population declines, agencies have implemented rehabilitation efforts, and the frequency and intensity of...

The San Joaquin Valley (SJV) of California is one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions. Reliance on groundwater has led to some of the greatest rates of human-induced land subsidence in the world in the 20th century, as well as more recently. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has...

Lake ice cover is declining globally with important implications for lake ecosystems. Ice loss studies often rely on small numbers of lakes with long-term data. We analyzed variation and trends in ice cover phenology from 1,213 lakes over 74 years (1949-2022) in Minnesota (USA), during which ice cover duration declined...

Aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are linked through the reciprocal exchange of materials and organisms. Aquatic-to-terrestrial subsidies are relatively small in most terrestrial ecosystems, but they can provide high contents of limiting resources that increase consumer fitness and ecosystem production. However, they also may carry significant contaminant loads, particularly in anthropogenically...

IntroductionIn 2023, the U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, evaluated the costs and benefits of supplemental elk (Cervus elaphus canadensis) feeding in western Wyoming. Elk supplemental feeding is intended to maintain elk populations in the winter...

Introduction  High-resolution elevation data are critical to applications of landscape modeling and planning, both of which have a significant effect on Rhode Island’s economy. In these and other enterprises, program managers, while aiming to strike a balance between accuracy and cost, strive to obtain the best available elevation data to...

Understanding long-term coastal evolution requires historical data, yet accessing reliable information becomes increasingly challenging for extended periods. While vertical aerial imagery has been extensively used in coastal studies since the mid-20th century, and satellite-derived shoreline measurements are now revolutionizing shoreline change studies, ground-based images, such as historical photographs and picture...

Nonindigenous aquatic species (NAS) present in trade can become costly invaders once introduced and established in a new environment. Preventing NAS introduction is considered the most effective strategy to avoid potential negative ecological, economic, and human health impacts associated with certain species. The United States government enacts regulatory prevention measures...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, conducted studies to help evaluate the surface-water and groundwater resources of the Salinas Valley study area, consisting of the entire Salinas River watershed and several smaller, adjacent coastal watersheds draining into Monterey Bay. The Salinas Valley...

Understanding fine-scale habitat selection of endangered Kootenai River white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) is an important component for monitoring and recovery efforts. Fine-scale habitat selection and quantifying temporal changes in suitable habitat contributes to the work of addressing recruitment failure within the Kootenai River population. Habitat suitability indices were developed using...

Abundances of coldwater adapted stream fish populations are declining largely due to anthropogenic influences, including increased temperature. To persist in streams with unsuitable thermal habitat, fish must move to coldwater patches, acclimate, or adapt to water temperatures above thermal optima. Brook trout, a coldwater adapted salmonid, has previously displayed physiological...

The U.S. Geological Survey and Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District in Wisconsin have an ongoing partnership to monitor water quality in streams in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and to assess the effects of stream restoration on habitat and water quality. Because sediment nutrient dynamics can improve or further impair water quality,...

Growing concerns about heat in urban areas paired with the sparsity of weather stations have resulted in individuals drawing on data from citizen science sensor networks to fill in data gaps. The PurpleAir are the most widely-used low-cost air quality sensors in the contiguous United States with 14,777 deployed between...

Freshwater forested wetlands account for ~76% (918 M ha) of the total global wetland extent. However, freshwater forested wetlands are difficult to distinguish from upland forest due to canopy coverage, the abundance of wetland-nonwetland mosaics, seasonal hydropatterns, and fewer readily observable connections to large surface water bodies relative to marshes and other...

The freshwater copepod Salmincola californiensis is an ectoparasite of Pacific salmon and trout (Oncorhynchus spp.). High levels of infection by this parasite can significantly damage gills and result in blood loss, affecting the fitness and survival of hosts, and it may hinder recovery efforts of threatened and endangered salmonids. Juvenile...

The accumulation area ratio (AAR) of a glacier reflects its current state of equilibrium, or disequilibrium, with climate and its vulnerability to future climate change. Here, we present an inventory of glacier-specific annual accumulation areas and equilibrium line altitudes (ELAs) for over 3000 glaciers in Alaska and northwest Canada (88%...

Cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs) are a global concern for aquatic ecosystem and human health. Limited funding for monitoring programs and inconsistent determination of cyanoHAB occurrence present challenges for identifying commonly effective variables for characterizing cyanoHABs and the development of generalized models. We compiled a combination of water quality measurements,...