Estimation of dynamic geologic CO2 storage resources in the Illinois Basin, including effects of brine extraction, anisotropy, and hydrogeologic heterogeneity
Michelle R. Plampin, Steven T. Anderson, Stefan Finsterle, Ashton M. Wiens
2025, Frontiers in Earth Science (13)
Since the vast majority of carbon dioxide (CO2) storage resources in the United States are in deep saline aquifers, optimizing the use of these saline storage resources could be crucial for efficient development of geologic CO2 storage (GCS) resources and basin- or larger-scale deployment of GCS in the country. Maximum CO2 injection...
Detecting hidden sedimentary geothermal systems in the Upper Colorado River Basin
Rand Gardner, Justin E. Birdwell, Donald S. Sweetkind, Patrick Sullivan, Melia Eaton, Holger Petermann, Annaka Clement, James Hagadorn, Joshua Woda
2025, Conference Paper, Using the Earth to save the Earth
Geothermal resources exist in sedimentary rock where circulation of water for efficient extraction or storage of heat is possible. Except in rare instances where hot water is expressed at the land surface, sedimentary geothermal resources are hidden, so the identification of these systems is optimally accomplished using predictive subsurface modeling....
The continued decline of the Palila (Loxioides bailleui) on Mauna Kea, Island of Hawaiʻi
Noah Hunt, Chauncey K. Asing, Lindsey Nietmann, Paul C. Banko, Richard J. Camp
2025, Avian Conservation and Ecology (20)
Palila (Loxioides bailleui) are critically endangered Hawaiian honeycreepers specializing on māmane (Sophora chrysophylla) seeds and restricted to Mauna Kea volcano on the Island of Hawaiʻi. Recently, the population was estimated to decline by 89% between 1998 and 2021, despite decades of ungulate removal, fence construction, māmane regeneration, fire suppression, and...
Estimation of the accessible and useful resource base for electric-grade enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) resources of the Great Basin, USA
Erick R. Burns, Luke P. Frash, Colin F. Williams
2025, Conference Paper, Using Earth to save the Earth
Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently completed a provisional assessment of the electric-grade geothermal resources associated with the low-permeability geologic formations of the Great Basin, USA, where resources are assumed to be accessible using enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) technologies (i.e., the engineering of sufficient permeability to facilitate efficient...
Quality of groundwater used for domestic supply in the Gilroy-Hollister basin and surrounding areas, California, 2022
Kirsten E. Faulkner, Bryant C. Jurgens
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2025-5097
More than 2 million Californians rely on groundwater from domestic wells for drinking-water supply. This report summarizes a 2022 California Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Priority Basin Project (GAMA-PBP) water-quality survey of 33 domestic and small-system drinking-water supply wells in the Gilroy-Hollister Valley groundwater basin and the surrounding areas, where more...
Environmental DNA monitoring of invasive Central American boas in St. Croix at Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve (SARI)
Caitlin Beaver, Alexis B. Tays, Wilfre Fuentes Santos, Madison E.A. Harman, Kristen A. Ewen, Evan L. Gwilliam, Margaret Hunter
2025, Science Report NPS/SR—2025/367
Invasive Central American boas (Boa imperator) have established a reproducing population on the western side of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands but prevalence throughout the island is largely unknown. The large snakes threaten endemic and endangered species through competition and predation, jeopardizing island biodiversity. Environmental DNA (eDNA) methods were used...
Geothermal potential of orphan oil and gas wells
Rand Gardner, Justin E. Birdwell, Matthew D. Merrill, Ashton M. Wiens, Karl Haase, Nicholas J. Gianoutsos, Uei I. Lei, Patrick Sullivan
2025, Conference Paper, Using the Earth to save the Earth
The United States is estimated to have hundreds of thousands of orphan oil and gas wells. Orphan wells are abandoned wells that are both unremediated and have no responsible operator. While traditionally considered environmental and economic liabilities, orphan oil and gas wells may offer new opportunities in sustainable geothermal energy...
Preventing overfitting when using tree-based methods for mapping hydrothermal favorability
Stanley Paul Mordensky, Erick R. Burns, John Lipor, Jacob DeAngelo
2025, Conference Paper, Using Earth to save the Earth
Ensemble tree-based algorithms are robust tools for estimating sparsely distributed resources with non-linear dependencies (e.g., hydrothermal systems). These algorithms naturally accommodate the threshold conditions necessary to enable and support hydrothermal systems (e.g., having sufficient heat and permeability) and are simpler than many other non-linear machine learning strategies (e.g., artificial neural...
Pre-eruptive characteristics of “suspect” silicic magmas in Carlin-type Au-forming systems
Celestine N. Mercer, Julie Roberge, Regina Marie Khoury, Albert H. Hofstra
2025, American Mineralogist (110) 1898-1918
World-class Carlin-type Au deposits hosted in sedimentary rock were formed when profuse Eocene silicic magmatism swept across northern Nevada in response to arc migration. Carlin-type Au deposits formed along with porphyry/skarn Cu-Mo-W-Au deposits, epithermal Ag-Au deposits, and distal disseminated Ag-Au deposits. But unlike these other Au-bearing deposits that have clear...
Exploring Martian geothermal and liquid water potential with basin modeling
Rand Gardner, Justin E. Birdwell, Katherine L. French, Chris Okubo, Janet K. Pitman, Stanley T. Paxton, Jason A. Flaum
2025, Conference Paper, Using the Earth to save the Earth
Assessing the potential for geothermal energy and liquid water presence in the Martian subsurface is crucial for future exploration and habitability studies. In this work, we employed comprehensive finite element model simulations adapted specifically for Martian conditions to estimate subsurface temperatures and the potential for liquid water at depth within Martian...
Potential for co-production of lithium and geothermal resources in the Gulf Coast
Rand Gardner, Justin E. Birdwell
2025, Conference Paper, Using the Earth to save the Earth
Lithium brine extractions and geothermal resource developments often are not economically viable as standalone projects, but they May become cost effective when the potential for both resources exist within the same reservoir. Subsurface datasets were analyzed to identify areas in the U.S. Gulf Coast region with potential for lithium brine...
Effects of climate change on Midwestern ecosystems: Central and Eastern North American Grassland and Shrubland
Hugh Ratcliffe, Katherine Charton, Taylor Siddons, Marta P. Lyons, Olivia E. LeDee
2025, Report
The Central and Eastern North American Grassland and Shrubland ecosystem may be increasingly shaped by intensifying drought and shifting seasonality. Rising temperatures and more variable precipitation, marked by longer dry spells, are projected to increase evapotranspiration and soil moisture deficits, and yield more frequent drought. At the same time, warming...
Geochemistry and Soils of the Big Smoky Valley Fens, Nevada
Sade K. Cromratie Clemons, Geoffrey John Moret, Katherine J. Earp
2025, Journal of the Nevada Water Resources Association (2025) 27-40
Fens are groundwater-fed wetlands that can provide habitat for plants and animals. Due to anthropogenic activities and climate change, many fens around the world are at risk. This paper presents the results of a study of the hydrology and geochemistry of fens in Big Smoky Valley, central Nevada to support the...
Leveraging an observed-data likelihood improves the use of machine learning labels in a Bayesian hierarchical model for bioacoustic data
Jacob Oram, Katharine M. Banner, Christian Stratton, Andrew Hoegh, Kathryn Irvine
2025, Annals of Applied Statistics (19) 2957-2980
Classification of massive datasets by machine learning (ML) algorithms is promising for many scientific domains, especially wildlife monitoring programs that rely on passive acoustic surveys for detecting species. However, treating ML-predicted class labels (e.g., species identity) as truth biases inferences of focal parameters within common modeling frameworks. One solution is...
Environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring fish biodiversity in remote lakes
Nicholas J. Iacaruso, Jared Thomas Myers, Michael J. Seider, Mark A. Davis
2025, North American Journal of Fisheries Management (46) 84-100
ObjectiveEnvironmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding provides an attractive option for monitoring biodiversity in remote freshwater ecosystems, where the deployment of conventional gears encounters major logistical constraints. We evaluated eDNA metabarcoding for monitoring fish communities and early detection of nonnative species in three remote lakes on Isle Royale, Michigan, USA.MethodsAt each of...
Range-wide population trend analysis for greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus)—Updated 1960–2024
Brian G. Prochazka, Peter S. Coates, Cameron L. Aldridge, Michael S. O’Donnell, David R. Edmunds, Adrian P. Monroe, Steve E. Hanser, Lief A. Wiechman, Michael P. Chenaille
2025, Data Report 1217
Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter sage-grouse) are at the center of State and national land-use policies largely because of their unique life-history traits as an ecological indicator for the health of sagebrush ecosystems. This updated population trend analysis provides State and Federal land and wildlife managers with the best available...
A framework for analyzing wild turkey summer sighting data.
Duane R. Diefenbach, Frances E. Buderman, Mary Jo Casalena, Michael Dye, Robert Gates, Laura Christine Gigliotti, C. Robert Long, Katherine Martin, Michael Muthersbaugh, Michael L. Peters, James Sloan, Joshua Stiller, Mark Wiley
2025, Wildlife Society Bulletin (49)
Wildlife agencies collect data on productivity (e.g., proportion of hens with poults and number of poults per hen) of wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) to monitor population status and trends. However, sampling protocols to collect productivity data rely on opportunistic observations reported by wildlife agency personnel and the...
Predicted fish vulnerability to stream drying in the western U.S.A.
Elizabeth A. Rieger, Niall G. Clancy, Ryan R. McShane, Roy Sando, Annika W. Walters
2025, Ecology of Freshwater Fish (35)
The frequency, magnitude and extent of stream drying is increasing due to climate change and human water demand. Fish vulnerability to increased stream drying is a combination of sensitivity (innate tolerance to low streamflow) and exposure to stream drying. To understand fish tolerance to low flow and...
The Hawaiian Volcanoes Supersite: Open data for the benefit of science and society
Michael Poland, Stefano Salvi, Falk Amelung, Marco Bagnardi, Tyler Grant Paladino, Ingrid A. Johanson, Megan McLay
2025, Bulletin of Volcanology (87)
The Hawaiian Volcanoes Supersite was established in 2008 with the goal of making large amounts of volcano monitoring data, especially satellite measurements, freely available at a site of international interest, scientific importance, and impactful natural hazards. The location was chosen because of the long history of volcanological research and innovation...
Sentinel-2 based estimates of rangeland fractional cover and canopy gap class for the western United States
Brady W. Allred, Sarah E. McCord, Timothy J. Assal, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Chad S. Boyd, Alexander C. Brooks, Samantha M. Cady, Michael C. Duniway, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf, Shane A. Green, Georgia R. Harrison, Eric R. Jensen, Emily J. Kachergis, Anna C. Knight, Chloe M. Mattilio, Brian A. Mealor, David E. Naugle, Dylan O’Leary, Peter J. Olsoy, Erika S. Peirce, Jason R. Reinhardt, Robert K. Shriver, Joseph T. Smith, Jason D. Tack, Ashley M. Tanner, Evan P. Tanner, Dirac Twidwell, Nicholas P. Webb, Scott L. Morford
2025, Scientific Data (12)
Rangelands are extensive ecosystems, providing important ecosystem services while undergoing continuous change. As a result, improved monitoring technologies can help better characterize vegetation change. Satellite remote sensing has proven effective in this regard, tracking vegetation dynamics at broad and fine scales. We leveraged the spatial, spectral, and...
Disentangling geomorphic equifinality in sediment and hydrologic connectivity through the analyses of landscape drivers of hysteresis
Jong Cho, J. William Lund, Grady Ball, Jeb E. Brown, Allen C. Gellis, Laura N. Gurley, Scott Douglas Hamshaw, Jeffrey Stephen Kwang, Andrew Roy Laws, Gregory E. Noe, Gretchen P. Oelsner, Francis Parchaso, Cara L. Peterman-Phipps, Katherine Skalak, Nicholas Alan Sutfin
2025, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (50)
Sources, transport mechanisms and pathways of fine sediment in river systems are dependent on a multitude of climatic, geomorphic and anthropogenic factors, resulting in geomorphic equifinality, in which it is difficult to parse how different landscape processes affect sediment transport across different spatiotemporal scales. The objectives of this study are...
Interspecific interactions moderate direct effects of vegetation change resulting from prescribed fires
Varsha Shastry, L. Mike Conner, Gail Morris, Andy Royle, Lora Smith, Dana Morin
2025, Scientific Reports (15)
Savannas depend on frequent, low-intensity fires that shape animal and plant communities. These fires alter animal populations, movement, and habitat use. Here, we report on how fires in a longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) savanna affected small mammal microhabitat use via changes in competition and predation. We monitored small mammal populations...
Rare milkvetch (Astragalus) persistence at a utility-scale solar energy facility in the Mojave Desert
Tiffany J. Pereira, Claire C Karban, Lara A. Kobelt, Seth M. Munson
2025, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (13)
Utility-scale solar energy (USSE) development is driving the projected growth in global renewable energy capacity but comes with environmental tradeoffs. New, alternative construction methods are promoted to minimize impacts to soils, vegetation, and hydrology; however, the disturbance created by these methods requires further investigation. We evaluated the population of a...
The effects of carnivory and herbivory on the energy balance of Arctic grizzly bears
Anthony M. Pagano, Karyn D. Rode, Kerry L. Nicholson, William B. Leacock, Craig A. Stricker, Charles T. Robbins
2025, Oecologia (208)
Omnivores often face tradeoffs between selecting for spatially dispersed energy-dense vertebrate prey versus densely distributed herbivorous resources that have limited energetic value per unit intake. Arctic grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) are large omnivores within a resource-limited ecosystem that are known to exhibit smaller body masses and occur at lower densities...
Summer snow determines the depth to ice-cemented ground under dry permafrost in Antarctica
C. P. McKay, M. Marinova, Kaj E. Williams, M. Mellon
2025, Antarctic Science
Dry permafrost underlain by ice-cemented permafrost has been reported in several locations in Antarctica. Initially thought to be relic ice, it is now understood that this subsurface ice is in equilibrium with the surface conditions, although it is not in equilibrium with the atmosphere. We use year-round data from University...
