Supporting dryland restoration success with applied ecological forecasting of seeding outcomes
Gregor-Fausto Siegmund, Daniel Rodolphe Schlaepfer, Caitlin M. Andrews, Leland D. Bennion, Jacob Ferguson, Michelle I. Jeffries, Peggy Olwell, David S. Pilliod, Allison B. Simler-Williamson, Alice E. Stears, Regina Zweng, John B. Bradford
2025, Restoration Ecology
IntroductionEcological restoration is increasingly used to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services. In drylands of the western United States (US), post-disturbance restoration often involves seeding treatments to promote the recovery of native plant communities. Spatial and temporal variability in environmental conditions influences plant establishment and contributes to low restoration success in...
Characterization of suspended sediment flux and streamflow trends in the Fountain Creek watershed, Colorado, 1998 through 2022
Myles S. Downhour, Erin K. Hennessy, Carleton R. Bern
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5089
The U.S. Geological Survey evaluated long-term suspended sediment flux and streamflow datasets for temporal trends (monotonic and step trends) at 10 streamgage sites within the Fountain Creek watershed in central Colorado using the Mann-Kendall test (monotonic trend) and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (step trend). Data were collected in cooperation with...
Earth Mapping Resources Initiative protocols—Sampling hard-rock mine waste and perpetual mine water sources
Kate M. Campbell, Robert R. Seal, Nadine M. Piatak, Jaime S. Azain, Jean M. Morrison, Sarah Jane White, Andrew H. Manning, Katherine Walton-Day, JoAnn M. Holloway, Bronwen Wang
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5068
Supporting the overarching goal to evaluate critical minerals nationwide, the mine waste characterization effort in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Mapping Resources Initiative has created a series of protocols to standardize sampling carried out under this effort by the participating State geological surveys and their cooperators. The protocols are...
Assessment of channel morphology, hydraulics, and bedload transport along the Siletz River, western Oregon
Krista L. Jones, Mackenzie K. Keith, Tessa M. Harden, James S. White, Stan van de Wetering, Jason B. Dunham
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5063
Significant FindingsChinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and Pacific lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus) are native, anadromous fish species in the Siletz River Basin, western Oregon, that face many threats to their survival in freshwater and the ocean. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon seek to mitigate freshwater threats to Chinook salmon...
Upper Mississippi River Restoration future hydrology meeting series
Molly Van Appledorn, Lucie Sawyer
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1050
The Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) program, a broad partnership of State and Federal agencies administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, integrates ecosystem monitoring, research, and modeling to rehabilitate habitat and evaluate ecosystem trends over time in the Upper Mississippi River System. Hydrologic data are integral to the...
A regional model comparison between MODPATH and MT3D of groundwater travel time distributions
Emily A. Baker, Paul Juckem, Daniel T. Feinstein, David J. Hart
2025, Groundwater (63) 861-873
Groundwater quality changes in wells and streams lag behind changes to land use due to groundwater travel times. Two contaminant transport methods were compared to assess differences in their simulated travel time distributions (TTDs) to streams and wells in the Wisconsin Central Sands. MODPATH simulates advective groundwater flow with particle...
Persistence of a declining anuran species across its distribution
Erin L. Koen, Edward Hance Ellington, William J. Barichivich, Howard Kochman, Kevin M. Enge, Susan E. Walls
2025, PLoS ONE (20)
Information on a species’ population dynamics, such as changes in abundance and distribution, can be used to identify declining populations and initiate conservation efforts and protections. For the Ornate Chorus Frog (Pseudacris ornata), anecdotal observations of local extirpation and population declines have been noted, but trends in its range-wide population...
Bears avoid residential neighborhoods in response to the experimental reduction of anthropogenic attractants
Cassandre C. Venumière-Lefebvre, Heather E. Johnson, Stewart W. Breck, Mathew W. Alldredge, Kevin R. Crooks
2025, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (13)
Introduction: Urbanization is an extreme form of land use alteration, with human development driving changes in the distribution of resources available to wildlife. Some large carnivores have learned to exploit anthropogenic food resources in urban development, resulting in human-carnivore conflict that can have detrimental impacts to people and carnivores, as exemplified...
Apicomplexan and non-metazoan microeukaryotes in the thermosensitive reef-building coral Acropora hyacinthus shift in abundance throughout an extreme coral bleaching event
Athena Peterson, Sunni Patton, Emily Rose Schmeltzer, Carsten Grupstra, Lauren Howe-Kerr, J. Grace Klinges, Rebecca Maher, Adrianna Messyasz, Sarah Seabrook, Andrew Thurber, Adrienne Correa, Rebecca Vega Thurber
2025, Frontiers in Marine Science (12)
Coral reefs play vital roles in global marine systems and are currently facing increased threats of bleaching. Coral bleaching is heavily influenced by the host-associated microeukaryote community – most notably the dinoflagellate family Symbiodiniaceae. The apicomplexan family Corallicolidae, is the second most abundant member of the microeukaryote community, yet their...
Accounting for seasonal patterns in bird availability prevents biased population trend estimates with advancing spring phenology
Emily L. Weiser, James Johnson, Steven M. Matsuoka, Colleen M. Handel
2025, Ornithological Applications
Advancing spring phenology has been observed around the world, including changes in the timing of breeding of birds. When singing rates are tied to breeding stage, the rate at which birds are available for detection by surveyors can also show seasonal patterns that may shift with spring phenology. As the...
Water withdrawal and consumption trends for thermoelectric-power plants in the conterminous United States, 2008-2020
Kenneth D. Skinner, Richard G. Niswonger, Melissa A. Harris, Brendan A. McCarthy, Catherine A. Chamberlin, Melissa A. Lombard, Timothy H. Diehl, Amy E. Galanter, Lillian E. Gorman Sanisaca, Jana S. Stewart
2025, Environmental Science and Technology: Water (5) 5280-5831
Freshwater-using utility-scale thermoelectric (TE) plant water-use estimates were evaluated for annual trends from 2008 to 2020 across the conterminous United States (CONUS) and within hydrologic regions. Overall, TE water withdrawal and consumption trends declined across CONUS by 14,335 and 278 million liters/day, respectively. Decreasing water withdrawal and consumption trends for...
Microbial source tracking in Cedar and Crane Creeks near Curtice, Ohio, 2021
Christopher M. Kephart, Lauren D. Lynch
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5079
Elevated concentrations of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria and signs of sewage lead to impairment of Cedar and Crane Creeks near the town of Curtice, Ohio. In 2021, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, collected samples and analyzed them for concentrations of E. coli and...
Methods for estimating selected low-flow statistics at gaged and ungaged stream sites in Massachusetts
Gardner C. Bent, Elizabeth A. Ahearn, Jennifer H. Fair
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5082
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, Office of Water Resources, computed selected at-site streamflow statistics at U.S. Geological Survey streamgages in and near Massachusetts and developed regional regression equations for estimating selected streamflows at ungaged stream sites in Massachusetts. Two sets of...
Three-dimensional seismic velocity model for the Cascadia Subduction Zone with shallow soils and topography, version 1.7
Erin A. Wirth, Alex R. Grant, Ian P. Stone, William J. Stephenson, Arthur D. Frankel
2025, Open-File Report 2025-1045
The U.S. Geological Survey’s seismic velocity model for the Cascadia Subduction Zone provides P- and S-wave velocity (VP and VS, respectively) information from 40.2° to 50.0° N. latitude and −129.0° to −121.0° W. longitude, and is used to support a variety of research topics, including three-dimensional (3D) earthquake simulations and...
Earthquake probabilities and hazards in the U.S. Pacific Northwest
Erin A. Wirth, Arthur D. Frankel, Brian Sherrod, Alex R. Grant, Audrey Dunham, Ian P. Stone, Julia Grossman
2025, Fact Sheet 2025-3050
Earthquakes and their cascading consequences pose a significant threat to the people, environment, infrastructure, and economy of the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest is susceptible to three types of earthquakes: deep (intraslab) earthquakes, subduction zone (megathrust) earthquakes, and shallow crustal earthquakes. For each of these earthquake types, earth scientists...
Spatially resolved source apportionment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) within a post-industrial river catchment
Patrick Byrne, William M. Mayes, Alun L. James, Sean Comber, Emma Biles, Alex L. Riley, Philip Verplanck, Lee Bradley
2025, Science of the Total Environment (1001)
Source apportionment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in rivers is typically based on water concentrations, which cannot quantify PFAS loads or define geographical source areas. This study applied a river catchment-scale approach to identify PFAS source zones and assess the relative importance of industrial PFAS sources in the River...
Machine learning generated streamflow drought forecasts for the Conterminous United States (CONUS): Developing and evaluating an operational tool to enhance sub-seasonal to seasonal streamflow drought early warning for gaged locations
John C. Hammond, Phillip J. Goodling, Jeremy Alejandro Diaz, Hayley R. Corson-Dosch, Aaron Joseph Heldmyer, Scott Douglas Hamshaw, Ryan R. McShane, Jesse Cleveland Ross, Roy Sando, Caelan Simeone, Erik Smith, Leah Ellen Staub, David Watkins, Michael Wieczorek, Kendall C. Wnuk, Jacob Aaron Zwart
2025, Preprint
Forecasts of streamflow drought, when streamflow declines below typical levels, are notably less available than for floods or meteorological drought, despite widespread impacts. To address this gap, we apply machine learning (ML) models to forecast streamflow drought 1-13 weeks into the future at > 3,000 streamgage locations across the conterminous...
PFAS sampling activities in the U.S. Geological Survey national networks
Melissa L. Riskin, Bruce D. Lindsey, Ryan Conner McCammon
2025, General Information Product 260
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), frequently called “forever chemicals,” are used for a wide variety of industrial purposes and are often found in common household and industrial items such as firefighting foams, non-stick cookware, and water-resistant materials. The contamination of water, air, and soil by PFAS is a national and...
Sundial: A method for inferring image acquisition time from shadow orientation
Inhyeok Bae, Carl J. Legleiter, Elowyn Yager
2025, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (50)
Aerial photography and satellite imagery can be used to characterize landscape change over time and help to understand how these changes are related to climate and hydrology. Publicly available optical imagery from sources such as the United States National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP) is particularly valuable in this context due...
Scenario projections of COVID-19 burden in the US, 2024-2025
Sara L Loo, Sung-mok Jung, Lucie Contamin, Emily Howerton, Samantha Bents, Harry Hochheiser, Michael Runge, Claire P. Smith, Erica Carcelén, Katie Yan, Joseph C. Lemaitre, Emily Przykucki, Clif McKee, Koji Sato, Allison Hill, Matteo Chinazzi, Jessica T. Davis, Clara Bay, Alessandro Vespignani, Shi Chen, Rajib Paul, Daniel Janies, Jean-Claude Thill, Sean Moore, T. Alex Perkins, Ajitesh Srivastava, Majd Al Aawar, Kaiming Bi, Shraddha Ramdas Bandekar, Anass Bouchnita, Spencer Fox, Lauren Ancel Meyers, Przemyslaw Porebski, Srinivasan Venkatramanan, Bryan Lewis, Jiangzhuo Chen, Madhav Marathe, Michal Ben-Nun, James Turtle, Pete Riley, Katriona Shea, Cécile Viboud, Justin Lessler, Shaun Truelove
2025, JAMA Network Open (8)
Importance COVID-19 remains a disease with high burden in the US, prompting continued debate about optimal targets for annual vaccination.Objective To project COVID-19 burden in the US for April 2024 to April 2025 under 6 scenarios of immune escape (20% and 50% per year) and levels of vaccine recommendation (no recommendation, vaccination...
Native crayfish shows high desiccation tolerance and potential to outcompete invader
Leah M. Bayer, Daniel D. Magoulick
2025, Biological Invasions (27)
Biological invasions threaten global biodiversity, with aquatic systems being particularly susceptible. Invasive crayfish drive native crayfish imperilment in North America and worldwide. Despite the probable increase in extreme hydrological events, the synergistic effects from invasive species and drought on crayfish are understudied. The invasion of Faxonius neglectus chaenodactylus in...
Reservoir operational strategies for sustainable sand management in the Colorado River
Gerard Lewis Salter, David J. Topping, Jianghao Wang, John C. Schmidt, Charles Yackulic, Lucas Bair, Erich R. Mueller, Paul E. Grams
2025, Water Resources Research (61)
Climate change and increasing societal demands for water pose challenges for the management of dam-regulated rivers. Management decisions impact the environment of these rivers, creating the need to balance societal needs with environmental conservation. Here we present a modeling framework that optimizes resource benefits within imposed water use goals for...
Effects of dietary selenium on the amphipod Hyalella azteca and the midge Chironomus dilutus
John M. Besser, Danielle M. Cleveland, David D. Harper, Rebecca A. Dorman, Aida Farag
2025, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Chronic selenium (Se) water quality criteria are based primarily on dietary organoselenium exposure and subsequent reproductive effects in fish. Available chronic Se toxicity data suggests that invertebrates are less sensitive than fish, but chronic invertebrate studies are limited. We evaluated yeast-based diets for chronic toxicity studies with Hyalella azteca and Chironomus dilutus. Growth and...
Interrogating process deficiencies in large-scale hydrologic models with interpretable machine learning
Admin Husic, John Christopher Hammond, Adam N. Price, Joshua Roundy
2025, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (29) 4457-4472
Large-scale hydrologic models are increasingly being developed for operational use in the forecasting and planning of water resources. However, the predictive strength of such models depends on how well they resolve various functions of catchment hydrology, which are influenced by gradients in climate, topography, soils, and land use. Most assessments...
Reduced Atlantic reef growth past 2 °C warming amplifies sea-level impacts
Chris T. Perry, Didier de Bakker, Alice Webb, Steeve Comeau, Ben Harvey, Chris Cornwall, Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip, Esmerelda Perez-Cervantes, John T Morris, Ian C. Enochs, Lauren Toth, Aaron O'Dea, Erin M. Dillon, Erik H, Meesters, William F. Precht
2025, Nature (646) 619-626
Coral reefs form complex physical structures that can help to mitigate coastal flooding risk1,2. This function will be reduced by sea-level rise (SLR) and impaired reef growth caused by climate change and local anthropogenic stressors3. Water depths above reef surfaces are projected to increase as a result, but the magnitudes...
