Luminescence dating of stone structures in northeastern United States
Jim Feathers, Shannon A. Mahan
2025, American Antiquity
There is no consensus on who built the numerous stone structures that dot the archaeological landscape in the northeastern United States. Professional archaeologists traditionally have attributed them to colonial farmers, but increasing numbers of archaeologists have joined many nonprofessional groups and Native Americans in arguing for Indigenous origins. Better understanding...
Time-varying rates of organic and inorganic mass accumulation in southeast Louisiana marshes: Relationships to sea-level anomalies and tropical storms
Sophie Vincent, Carol Wilson, G.A. Snedden, Tracy Quirk
2025, Journal of Coastal Research (41) 452-467
Louisiana's coastal wetlands are complex systems that require a continuous input of organic and inorganic material to keep pace with relative sea-level rise. Coastal restoration projects such as sediment diversions are being implemented to mitigate land loss and increase availability of inorganic sediment to coastal wetlands, and marshes specifically rely...
Confluence of time and space: An innovation for quantifying dynamics of hydrologic floodplain connectivity with remote sensing and GIS
Hafez Ahmad, Leandro E. Miranda, Corey Garland Dunn, Melanie R. Boudreau, Michael E. Colvin, Padmanava Dash
2025, River Research and Applications (41) 1014-1029
Hydrologic connectivity is a crucial determinant of aquatic ecosystem services, governing the exchange of nutrients, sediments, chemicals, and biota. Various indices and metrics exist for quantifying hydrologic connectivity across diverse environments and scales. However, existing methodologies often fail to adequately capture lateral connectivity between floodplain lakes and streams across vast,...
Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 in double-crested cormorants (Nannopterum auritum) of the Chesapeake Bay, USA
Johanna Alexandra Harvey, Jeffery Dale Sullivan, Rebecca L. Poulson, Deborah L. Carter, Cindy P. Driscoll, Peter C. McGowan, Carl R. Callahan, Amy W. O'Donnell, Jennifer M. Mullinax, David E. Stallknecht, Diann Prosser
2025, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (61) 348-356
Double-crested Cormorants (Nannopterum auritum) have historically exhibited low levels of infection and antibodies to avian influenza virus (AIV). The recent global expansion of clade 2.3.4.4b A/goose/Guangdong/1/1996 highly pathogenic (HP) avian influenza virus H5N1 (HPAI H5N1) has resulted in large-scale mortalities across diverse waterbird taxa including cormorants. We sampled 32 and...
The 3D Elevation Program—Supporting Utah’s economy
Cynthia L. Ritmiller
2025, Fact Sheet 2025-3004
Introduction High-quality elevation data for Utah inform decision making to improve the State’s economy. Light detection and ranging (lidar) data are used to support infrastructure planning and management, assess natural resources, and improve resiliency to hazards. The expanding availability of current and more accurate lidar data helps to better support natural...
Hydrogeomorphic history, hydrodynamic conditions, and simulations of water levels and velocities from varying lake levels and streamflow for the Sheboygan Rivermouth and area of concern, Wisconsin
Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Stephen, M. Westenbroek, Paul C. Reneau, James D. Blount
2025, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5125
In 2011–13, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted a study of the hydrogeomorphic setting and hydrodynamic conditions of the lower Sheboygan River and island complex within the backwater zone of Lake Michigan. Analyses of historical aerial photographs from 1938–2010 indicated that the Wildwood Islands complex had experienced mainly erosion and...
Impoundments facilitate upstream invasion and introgression: Case studies of fluvial black basses (Micropterus spp.) in the southeastern USA
A.T. Taylor, M.D. Tringali, James M. Long
2025, PLoS ONE (20)
Impoundment construction has resulted in the alternation and loss of fluvial habitats, threatening the persistence of many native fishes. Compounding this threat, non-native species stocked into impoundments often invade interconnected fluvial habitats, where they may negatively affect native species. Black basses (genus Micropterus) are popular sportfishes with divergent ecologies: some taxa...
Fungal impacts on Earth’s ecosystems
Nicola T. Case, Sarah J. Gurr, Matthew C. Fisher, David S. Blehert, Charles Boone, Arturo Casadevall, Anuradha Chowdhary, Christina A. Cuomo, Cameron R. Currie, David W. Denning, Iuliana V. Ene, Lillian K. Fritz-Laylin, Aleeza C. Gerstein, Neil A. R. Gow, Asiya Gusa, Iliyan D. Iliev, Timothy Y. James, Hailing Jin, Regine Kahmann, Bruce S. Klein, James W. Kronstad, Kyla S. Ost, Kabir G. Peay, Rebecca S. Shapiro, Donald C. Sheppard, Neta Shlezinger, Jason E. Stajich, Eva H. Stukenbrock, John W. Taylor, Gerard D. Wright, Leah E. Cowen, Joseph Heitman, Julia A. Segre
2025, Nature (638) 49-57
Over the past billion years, the fungal kingdom has diversified to more than two million species, with over 95% still undescribed. Beyond the well-known macroscopic mushrooms and microscopic yeast, fungi are heterotrophs that feed on almost any organic carbon, recycling nutrients through the decay of dead plants and animals and...
Cell penetrating peptide-mediated delivery of gene-silencing nucleic acids to the invasive common reed Phragmites australis via foliar application
Qing Ji, Kurt P. Kowalski, Edward M. Golenberg, Seung Ho Chung, Natalie D. Barker, Wesley A. Bickford, Ping Gong
2025, Plants (14)
As a popular tool for gene function characterization and gene therapy, RNA interference (RNAi)-based gene silencing has been increasingly explored for potential applications to control invasive species. At least two major hurdles exist when applying this approach to invasive plants: (1) the design and screening of species- and gene-specific biomacromolecules...
The effects of imidacloprid and polyester microfibers on the larval development of the endangered sunflower star
Alexandra G. Tissot, Elise F. Granek, Fiona Curliss, Augustin Kalytiak-Davis, Jason Hodin, Michelle L. Hladik
2025, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (44) 1107-1119
Sea star wasting syndrome (SSWS) has affected numerous species of sea star, with populations of Pycnopodia helianthoides (Brandt, 1835) left most at risk. As their populations are struggling to recover, it is important to gain a better understanding of the impacts that the multiple stressors in their habitats can have on their...
Systematic shifts in the variation among host individuals must be considered in climate-disease theory
Joseph R. Mihaljevic, David James Paez
2025, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (292)
To make more informed predictions of host–pathogen interactions under climate change, studies have incorporated the thermal performance of host, vector and pathogen traits into disease models to quantify effects on average transmission rates. However, this body of work has omitted the fact that variation in susceptibility among individual hosts affects...
Preprint: Simulated seasonal loads of total nitrogen and total phosphorus by major source from watersheds draining to Washington waters of the Salish Sea, 2005 through 2020
Noah Schmadel, Cristiana Figueroa-Kaminsky, Daniel Wise, Jamie K. Wasielewski, Zachary Johnson, Robert W. Black
2025, Preprint
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) have developed watershed models of seasonal load estimates of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) discharging into the Washington waters of the Salish Sea from 2005 through 2020. The modeling approach used was dynamic SPARROW (SPAtially...
Continuous stream discharge, salinity, and associated data collected in the lower St. Johns River and its tributaries, Florida, 2022
Jennifer N. Carson, Matthew T. Benacquisto
2025, Open-File Report 2024-1076
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, deepened the St. Johns River channel in Jacksonville, Florida, to accommodate larger, fully loaded cargo vessels. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, monitored stage, discharge, and (or) water temperature and salinity at 26 continuous...
Geologic map of MTM −15032 and −20032 quadrangles, western Ladon basin, Mars
Catherine M. Weitz, Sharon A. Wilson, John A. Grant, Rossman P. Irwin, III
James A. Skinner, editor(s)
2025, Scientific Investigations Map 3525
Our mapping efforts focused on the geomorphic terrains and geologic units contained within Mars Transverse Mercator (MTM) −15032 and −20032 quadrangles. These two quadrangles are located along the west side of Ladon basin and span lat −12.5° N. to −22.5° N. and long 325° E. to 330° E. The western...
Uranium mining, the Grand Canyon region, and the science of an ecosystem
Benjamin J. Siebers
2025, General Information Product 249
Illustration of U.S. Geological Survey science at breccia pipe mines in the Grand Canyon region. The upper left portion shows a cross section of a breccia pipe and rock layers (far upper left) in a panoramic view of the Grand Canyon with upper right depicting rock pinnacles the Havasupai Tribe...
Streamflow, water quality, and constituent loads and yields, Scituate Reservoir drainage area, Rhode Island, water year 2022
Kirk Smith, Alana B. Spaetzel
2025, Data Report 1205
As part of a long-term cooperative program to monitor water quality within the Scituate Reservoir drainage area, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Providence Water (formerly the Providence Water Supply Board), collected streamflow and water-quality data in tributaries to the Scituate Reservoir, Rhode Island. Streamflow and concentrations of chloride...
Water depth, position within the nesting colony, and nearest neighbor density affect nest survival in Aechmophorus occidentalis (Western Grebe)
Deo A. Lachman, Courtney J. Conway, Kerri T. Vierling, Ty Matthews
2025, Ornithological Applications (127)
Aechmophorus occidentalis (Western Grebe) are colonial nesting waterbirds that have experienced population declines. We located and monitored 709 grebe nests using a drone within Lake Cascade, the largest grebe breeding colony in Idaho. We conducted 6 flights between June 20, 2018 and July 11, 2018 and used the photographs from each...
Video evidence of a Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) preying upon a live Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) duckling in Louisiana
Brad Glorioso, Alex Landry, Gabrielle Mandill
2025, Southeastern Naturalist (23) N90-N93
Most animal matter in the diet of the omnivorous Trachemys scripta (Pond Slider) consists of invertebrate prey items such as insects, crustaceans, and mollusks, but often also includes fish and amphibians. Reptiles, birds, and mammals are less commonly reported, and even when found, it is usually unknown if they were...
Snapshots of mid-to-late Holocene sea-surface temperature variability from a subtropical western Atlantic coral reef
Jessica A. Jacobs, Julie N. Richey, Jennifer A. Flannery, Kaustubh Thiumalai, Lauren Toth
2025, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (663)
Large-scale Holocene climate reconstructions rely heavily on extratropical proxy records. Coral-based temperature reconstructions from the tropical and subtropical oceans therefore fill a critical spatial and temporal data gap, allowing for reconstruction of seasonally resolved temperature variability. We present five new, monthly-resolved sea-surface temperature (SST) reconstructions (between 39 and 57 years in...
Bait trapping of waterfowl increases the environmental contamination of avian influenza virus (AIV)
Cassandra Andrew, Landon McPhee, Kevin Kuchinski, Jordan Wight, Ishraq Rahman, Sarah Mansour, Gabrielle Angelo Cortez, Marzieh Kalhor, Ethan Kenmuir, Natalie Prystajecky, Kathryn Hargan, Andrew Lang, James Leafloor, Catherine Soos, Andrew M. Ramey, Chelsea Himsworth
2025, Journal of Wildlife Management (89)
Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) H5Nx clade 2.3.4.4b has circulated in North America since late 2021, resulting in higher rates of morbidity and mortality in wild birds than observed in this region before. The objective of this study was to determine whether baiting, which is widely conducted in Canada...
Concentration-discharge relations and transient metal loads reveal spatiotemporal variability in solute-generation mechanisms in a mine-affected watershed
Connor P. Newman, Alexis Navarre-Sitchler, Robert L. Runkel, Rory M. Cowie
2025, Journal of Contaminant Hydrology (269)
Concentration-discharge (CQ) relations are commonly used to understand geochemical and hydrologic controls on the generation of solutes in watersheds. Despite the widespread application of CQ relations, this technique has been infrequently applied to acid mine drainage (AMD) sites, but the CQ framework may allow mechanistic understanding of remedial outcomes such...
Waterfront property owners' shoreline preferences amid salt marsh to mangrove transitions
Jahson B. Alemu I, A. Randall Hughes, Michael Osland, Savannah H. Swinea, Kalaina A. Thorne, Remi Bardou, Christine C. Shepard, Steven B. Scyphers
2025, People and Nature (7) 668-683
1. We examined the influence of mangrove encroachment into salt marsh areas along the northern Gulf of Mexico (USA) on waterfront property owners' perceptions of coastal health and preferences for shoreline management. 2. Using mail-in and online surveys, we targeted over 3000 waterfront property owners across four jurisdictions experiencing or...
AAPG Energy and Minerals Division Tight Oil and Gas Committee Activities and Commodity Report for 2021-2022: Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Gulf Coast basin, Louisiana and Mississippi
Celeste D. Lohr
2025, Preprint
The Upper Cretaceous Tuscaloosa marine shale (TMS) potential production area encompasses 20.4 million acres across central Louisiana (LA), southern Mississippi (MS), southwestern Alabama (AL), and a small southwestern section of the Florida panhandle (Hackley et al., 2018). It remains a minor and largely undeveloped unconventional shale oil play with production...
Development of ‘SedCam’— A close-range remote sensing method of estimating suspended-sediment concentration in small rivers
Adam R. Mosbrucker, Molly S. Wood
2025, Geomorphology (476)
The adaptation of suspended-sediment surrogate technologies continues to rapidly expand across geomorphology and fluvial sediment monitoring efforts. Over a decade of research and development shows increased reliability and accuracy of in-situ surrogates with reduced program cost as compared to traditional sample-based methods, but environmental fouling and probe damage can be...
Assessing risk for enhanced cyanobacteria, phytoplankton, and pathogens with changes in water level regime with potential application to Lake Powell and Lake Mead: A mixed methods literature review
Kathryn K. Hoffman, Bridget Deemer, Mary E. Lofton, Nicole D. Gibney, Cayelan C. Carey
2025, Science Report NPS/SR—2025/226
Water levels in freshwater reservoirs worldwide are changing due to altered climate, management practices, and increasing human demand for water. In the desert southwestern USA, managers are considering significant changes to reservoir operation strategies and water management in response to consumptive use and ongoing drought. To inform reservoir management decision-making,...
