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Coral reef mortality around the world is accelerating due to human activities and rising sea temperatures that cause bleaching, which is expected to become more frequent. Our ability to predict which corals will be most resilient, however, remains limited due to insufficient information characterizing nearshore temperature and habitat conditions. In...

In urban areas, floodplain restoration is gaining prominence as a strategy for restoring the natural functions of floodplain ecosystems and reducing flood risk. This has spurred research into potential interactions between floodwaters, the hyporheic zone, and the floodplain aquifer. An urban restored stream in Wisconsin, USA, was used as a...

Automation using deep learning methods is a useful alternative to manual methods of petrographic segmentation, but often requires user familiarity with coding and/or algorithms. We examine the DragonflyTM program's deep learning tools for application by users with a variety of skill levels as a method for petrographic image segmentation. An...

This excursion presents a reinterpretation of mapping and new analytical data from the eastern Orange-Milford belt (OMB) in south-central Connecticut. The OMB is a fault-bound terrane of argillites and mafic rocks of anomalously low metamorphic grade—and of poorly constrained ages and tectonic affinity—wedged between kyanite/sillimanite-grade peri- Laurentian rocks to the...

Maars pose considerable hazards due to their more explosive nature (compared with more common scoria cones) and likelihood that eruptions produce pyroclastic surges. Blue Lake crater is a maar in the Oregon High Cascades that erupted within the last 3000 years, making it one of the youngest eruptions in the Oregon...

ContextCheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) is a problem across the western United States, where it outcompetes and replaces native grass species, alters habitats, and increases the risk of wildfires. Cheatgrass greens up earlier in the growing season compared to native grasses, making it classifiable with multi-temporal and multi-spectral remote sensing.ObjectivesWe mapped cheatgrass...

Collared pikas (Ochotona collaris) are cold adapted alpine lagomorphs of western Canada and Alaska, USA, that are vulnerable to direct and indirect effects of climate change. However, how and to what extent such changes influence persistence for this species is not well understood, particularly at fine spatial...

The Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) has a single, panmictic stock that ranges across the Bering and Chukchi Seas. However, its seasonal distribution is incompletely described, particularly in autumn when herds gather on shore, and abundance is of interest to management entities. We monitored walrus herds using satellite imagery on...

Several onshore faults in southern Puerto Rico have recently been recognized as Quaternary active. However, the kinematics of these faults, particularly any lateral component, remain largely unconstrained. It is difficult to characterize low strain‐rate faults, partially due to extensive erosional and anthropogenic landscape modification, steep relief, and frequent landsliding, limiting...

As the population of New Jersey increases, supplying adequate drinking water to meet demand remains a high priority. To better understand potential streamflow trends over time, the U.S. Geological Survey completed a study comparing low flows at continuous- and partial-record streamgages in New Jersey between a historical period (1950–79) and...

BackgroundDrought, human disturbance, and invasive species are reshaping disturbance regimes and increasing the scale, severity, and frequency of wildfire in many ecosystems around the globe, including the sagebrush steppe of western North America. Recent studies suggested greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) adhere to strong site fidelity in the aftermath...

Animal movement influences local transmission and geographic spread of pathogens. Waterfowl are known reservoirs of pathogens, including H5 goose/Guangdong lineage (H5 GsGd) highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). This HPAI virus lineage causes high rates of morbidity and mortality in domestic poultry and many wild bird species. Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) are...

We provide an update to the recently published population viability analysis for North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis). The update includes improvements to the reproduction modeling and also shares additional context given evidence of reduced mortality indicated by recent population monitoring. Projections from the analysis are used to quantify simulated population...

This study employs a multi-method analytical approach to characterize the mineralogical, geochemical, and textural properties of fault rocks from the Pogo gold mine in the Yukon-Tanana Upland, central Alaska. Specifically, we examine cataclasites, to document the structural and geochemical evolution of shear zones and their associations with gold mineralization. To...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates pesticide use in the United States. The EPA is charged by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) with ensuring that a pesticide will not cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment. Incident reports (documentation of exposure and injury from pesticide applications)...

Tertiary ore deposits in the Rocky Mountains physiographic province primarily formed through magmatic-hydrothermal processes associated with shifting tectonics and lithospheric conditions. Important deposit types in the province are calc-alkaline and Climaxtype porphyry; high-, medium-, and low-sulfidation epithermal; alkalic magmatic; carbonate replacement; tungsten skarn and vein; and sandstone uranium. Province wide,...

Periodical cicada emergences can positively affect vertebrate reproduction and breeding behavior, yet this response is not well studied for bats. We examined the acoustic response of 6 species/phonic groups of bats in 2021 to the emergence of Brood X periodical cicadas, along the Potomac River corridor, in Maryland and Virginia....

Pogo is a quartz vein hosted, ca. 8 Moz gold deposit. Although it has similarities to orogenic and magmatic-hydrothermal deposits, its origin remains enigmatic. Observations from surface exposures, underground workings, and drill core provide new constraints on quartz vein origins with implications for mineralization. Abundant, largely barren metamorphic segregation quartz...

Occurrences of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in rivers challenge the belief that rivers are not susceptible to HABs because of their short residence times and fluctuating hydrology. Here we present a systematic literature review of predictive and forecasting models for HABs in flowing waters, including rivers, flowing in-stream reservoirs (e.g.,...

Abnormalities were observed in the testes of common carp Cyprinus carpio collected from Willow Beach, Arizona, USA, a site on the lower Colorado River, downstream of Lake Mead and Hoover Dam. Testicular tissue collected from this site in 2003 exhibited numerous large, pigmented macrophage aggregates (MAs) and a...

In this newsletter, we are excited to share our recent publication, Bridging theory and practice to inform seed selection for restoration, which is part of an ongoing collaborative effort with land managers and restoration practitioners to synthesize lessons learned and identify future research directions for native seed development and...

Ambient stream water temperatures affect salmonid movement and survival with fish actively seeking thermal refugia from warming waters. This study sought to investigate the potential role of water temperature in the perceived decline in native Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis and non-native Brown Trout Salmo trutta populations in the North Branch...

Surface elevation data along the Texas Coast is limited, despite having some of the highest rates of relative sea-level rise in the country (Sweet et al., 2022). To narrow these knowledge and data gaps, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) established the first landscape-scale rod surface elevation table (RSET)...

Worldwide, exploited fish populations are increasingly affected by the combined effects of warming and fishing. Disentangling the relative effects of these factors is challenging yet crucial for designing management strategies. We used a temperature-dependent population dynamics model to assess the impacts of lake warming and fishing on 521 freshwater fish...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), prepared potentiometric surface maps for 10 confined aquifers of the New Jersey Coastal Plain physiographic province based on water-level measurements collected during late 2018 and early 2019 from 951 wells in New Jersey and parts...