Prospectivity mapping for geologic hydrogen
Sarah E. Gelman, Jane S. Hearon, Geoffrey S. Ellis
2025, Professional Paper 1900
Geologic, or naturally occurring, hydrogen has the potential to become a new, low-carbon, primary energy resource. Often referred to as “white” or “gold” hydrogen, this gas occurs naturally in the Earth’s subsurface, similar to petroleum resources. However, unlike petroleum, which releases carbon dioxide when burned, burning hydrogen only produces water...
Jaguar density estimation in Mexico: The conservation importance of considering home range orientation in spatial capture–recapture
Sean M. Murphy, Victor H. Luja
2025, Conservation Science and Practice (7)
Accurate estimation of population parameters for imperiled wildlife is crucial for effective conservation decision-making. Population density is commonly used for monitoring imperiled species across space and time, and spatial capture–recapture (SCR) models can produce unbiased density estimates. However, many imperiled species are restricted to fragmented remnant habitats in landscapes severely...
Tracing metal sources and groundwater flow paths in the Upper Animas River watershed using rare earth elements and stable isotopes
Connor P. Newman, Rory M. Cowie, Rick Wilkin, Alexis Navarre-Sitchler
2025, Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis (25)
Groundwater flow paths and processes that govern metal mobility and transport are difficult to characterize in mountainous bedrock watersheds. Despite the difficulty in holistic characterization, conceptual understanding of subsurface hydrologic and geochemical processes is key to developing remediation plans for locations affected by acid mine drainage, such as the Upper...
Forecasting water levels using the ConvLSTM algorithm in the Everglades, USA
Raidan Bassah, Gerald A. Corzo Perez, Biswa Bhattacharya, Saira Haider, Eric D. Swain, Nicholas Aumen
2025, Journal of Hydrology (652)
Forecasting water levels in complex ecosystems like wetlands can support effective water resource management, ecological conservation, and understanding surface and groundwater hydrology. Predictive models can be used to simulate the complex interactions among natural processes, hydrometeorological factors, and human activities. The Greater Everglades in the USA is a well-known example...
Optimization of wetland environmental DNA metabarcoding protocols for Great Lakes region herpetofauna
Olivia M. Ruppert, Jared Joseph Homola, Jeannette Kanefsky, Alyssa Swinehart, Kim T. Scribner, John D. Robinson
2025, Environmental DNA (7)
Many species of reptiles and amphibians (herpetofauna) rely on wetlands that are being degraded and lost at a high rate. Characterization of herpetofauna diversity in different wetland types may help guide conservation strategies. However, traditional survey methods often involve sampling within small temporal windows, and the gear deployed may be...
Accurate simulation of flow through dipping aquifers with MODFLOW 6 using enhanced cell connectivity
Alden M. Provost, Kerry Bardot, Christian D. Langevin, James L. McCallum
2025, Groundwater (63) 399-408
In simulations of groundwater flow through dipping aquifers, layers of model cells are often “deformed” to follow the top and bottom elevations of the aquifers. When this approach is used in MODFLOW, adjacent cells within the same model layer are vertically offset from one another, and the standard conductance-based (two-point)...
Ecohydrological response of a forested headwater catchment to a flash drought in the Southeastern U.S.
Jeffrey W. Riley, Luke A. Pangle, Michael Forster, Brent T. Aulenbach
2025, Journal of Hydrology (652)
Flash droughts differ from traditionally defined droughts in their rapidity of intensification and often associated high vapor-pressure deficit. These droughts can lead to declines in streamflow and water table depth and induce water stress to vegetation at a greater rate than droughts that manifest over longer periods. However, little is...
Disease, environment, and pollution: Understanding drivers behind tumour outbreaks in sea turtles
Costanza Manes, Richard M. Herren, Evan Cooper, Margaret Lilyestrom, David Godfrey, Marianne Kuzoch, Raymond R. Carthy, Ilaria Capua
2025, One Health Cases
Various wildlife diseases of the Anthropocene (the Anthropocene currently has no formal status in the Divisions of Geologic Time https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2018/3054/fs20183054.pdf, accessed 4 June 2024) have root causes that are found in human-driven environmental disturbances. Fibropapillomatosis of sea turtles is exemplary of a human-exacerbated wildlife disease, and this...
Developing biocrust field cultivation techniques for soil restoration: An assessment of bacterial communities
Sierra D. Jech, Kara Dohrenwend, Natalie Day, Nichole N. Barger, Anita Antoninka, Matthew A. Bowker, Sasha C. Reed, Colin L Tucker
2025, Applied Soil Ecology (206)
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are a coherent, thin soil surface layer, engineered and inhabited by a diverse community of moss, lichen, cyanobacteria, and other microorganisms. Biocrusts provide critical functions in dryland systems and may be lost from the ecosystem through physical disturbance or other global change drivers. Once biocrusts are...
Integrated water availability in the conterminous United States, 2010–20
Edward G. Stets, Matthew J. Cashman, Olivia L. Miller, Kathryn Powlen
2025, Professional Paper 1894-F
Water availability is defined as the spatial and temporal distribution of water quantity and quality as it relates to the needs of humans and ecosystems. Broad assessment of water availability requires the consideration of multiple indicators because water users have different sensitivities to the degradation of water conditions. This chapter...
Climate change and future water availability in the United States
Martha A. Scholl, Gregory J. McCabe, Carolyn G. Olson, Kathryn Powlen
2025, Professional Paper 1894-E
The steady rise in global temperature as a result of human activity is causing changes in Earth’s water cycle. The balance of water stored within and moving between vapor, liquid, and frozen states in the water cycle is shifting, with consequences for water availability that include increases in drought, fire...
Water use across the conterminous United States, water years 2010–20
Laura Medalie, Amy E. Galanter, Anthony J. Martinez, Althea A. Archer, Carol L. Luukkonen, Melissa A. Harris, Jonathan V. Haynes
2025, Professional Paper 1894-D
Withdrawals of water for human use are fundamental to the evaluation of the Nation’s water availability. This chapter provides an analysis of public supply, crop irrigation, and thermoelectric power water use for the conterminous United States (CONUS) during water years 2010–20. These three categories account for about 90 percent of...
Status of water-quality conditions in the United States, 2010–20
Melinda L. Erickson, Olivia L. Miller, Matthew J. Cashman, James R. Degnan, James E. Reddy, Anthony J. Martinez, Elmera Azadpour
2025, Professional Paper 1894-C
Degradation of water quality can make water harmful or unusable for humans and ecosystems. Although many studies have assessed the effect of individual constituents or narrow suites of constituents on freshwater systems, no consistent, comprehensive assessment exists over the wide range of water-quality effects on water availability. Using published studies,...
Water supply in the conterminous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, water years 2010–20
Galen Gorski, Edward G. Stets, Martha A. Scholl, James R. Degnan, John R. Mullaney, Amy E. Galanter, Anthony J. Martinez, Julie Padilla, Jacob H. LaFontaine, Hayley R. Corson-Dosch, Allen Shapiro
2025, Professional Paper 1894-B
We present an assessment of water supply across the conterminous United States (CONUS), Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico covering water years 2010–20. Our analysis drew on two national hydrologic models, the National Hydrologic Model Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System and the Weather Research and Forecasting model hydrologic modeling system. Both models produced...
The National integrated water availability assessment, water years 2010–20
Edward G. Stets, Althea A. Archer, James R. Degnan, Melinda L. Erickson, Galen Gorski, Laura Medalie, Martha A. Scholl
2025, Professional Paper 1894-A
Water availability is fundamentally important to human well-being, economic vitality, and ecosystem health. Because of its central importance, the U.S. Congress tasked the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other Federal agencies with conducting regular, comprehensive assessments of water availability in the United States through the requirements under the SECURE Water...
U.S. Geological Survey Integrated Water Availability Assessment—2010–20
Edward G. Stets, editor(s)
2025, Professional Paper 1894
This professional paper is a multichapter report that assesses water availability in the United States for water years 2010–20. This work was conducted as part of the fulfillment of the mandates of Subtitle F of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-11), also known as...
Surficial geology and Quaternary tectonics of the Madison Valley and fault zone, Madison, Gallatin, and Beaverhead Counties, southwest Montana
Chester A. Ruleman, Theodore R. Brandt
2025, Scientific Investigations Map 3508
The north-northwest-striking Madison fault is approximately 95 kilometers in length, lying at the confluence of the northeastern Basin and Range province and the Yellowstone tectonic parabola. The fault zone consists primarily of west-dipping normal faults that have east-dipping antithetic faults, which create the Madison Valley graben and several northeast-trending intrabasin...
The Center for the Advancement of Population Assessment Methodology (CAPAM): A perspective on the first 10 years
Mark N. Maunder, Paul R. Crone, Brice X. Semmens, Juan L. Valero, Lynn Waterhouse, Richard D. Methot, Andre E. Punt
2025, Fisheries Research (281)
The Center for the Advancement of Population Assessment Methodology (CAPAM) was established in 2013, envisioned as an institute that could conduct, organize, and communicate stock assessment research with the aim of benefiting fisheries assessment efforts internationally. CAPAM’s activities have focused on its workshop series and consequent special issues in Fisheries Research....
Endemic and invasive species: A history of distributional trends in the fish fauna of the lower New River drainage
Stuart A. Welsh, Daniel A. Cincotta, Nathaniel V. Owens, Jay R. Stauffer Jr.
2025, Water (17)
Invasive species are often central to conservation efforts, particularly when concerns involve potential impacts on rare, endemic native species. The lower New River drainage of the eastern United States is a watershed that warrants conservation assessment, as the system is naturally depauperate of native fish species and it is nearly...
Emotions and political identity predict public acceptance of urban deer management
Hannah M. Desrochers, M. Nils Peterson, Lincoln R. Larson, Christopher E. Moorman, Elizabeth M. Kierepka, John C. Kilgo, Nathan J. Hostetter
2025, Urban Ecosystems (28)
Addressing public preferences can enhance wildlife management effectiveness and reduce backlash. We conducted novel research on public acceptance of wildlife management by accounting for the role of underexplored drivers including emotion and political identity across an urban-to-rural gradient. Using data from a 2022 survey about white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in...
Ecosystem drivers of freshwater mercury bioaccumulation are context-dependent: Insights from continental-scale modeling
Christopher James Kotalik, James Willacker, Jeff S. Wesner, Branden L. Johnson, Colleen M. Flanagan Pritz, Sarah J. Nelson, David M. Walters, Collin A. Eagles-Smith
2025, Environmental Science and Technology (59)
Significant variation in mercury (Hg) bioaccumulation is observed across the diversity of freshwater ecosystems in North America. While there is support for the major drivers of Hg bioaccumulation, the relative influence of different external factors can vary widely among waterbodies, which makes predicting Hg risk across large spatial scales particularly...
Wave ripples formed in ancient, ice-free lakes in Gale crater, Mars
C.A. Mondro, C.M. Fedo, J.P. Grotzinger, Michael P. Lamb, S. Gupta, W.E. Dietrich, S. G. Banham, C.M. Weitz, P. Gasda, Lauren A. Edgar, D. Rubin, A.B. Bryk, E.S. Kite, G. Caravaca, J. Schieber, A.R. Vasavada
2025, Science Advances (11)
Symmetrical wave ripples identified with NASA’s Curiosity rover in ancient lake deposits at Gale crater provide a key paleoclimate constraint for early Mars: At the time of ripple formation, climate conditions must have supported ice-free liquid water on the surface of Mars. These features are the most definitive examples of...
Hybrid coral reef restoration can be a cost-effective nature-based solution to provide protection to vulnerable coastal populations
Curt D. Storlazzi, Borja Reguero, Kristen C. Alkins, James B. Shope, Aaron Cole, Camila Gaido-Lassarre, Shay Viehman, Michael W. Beck
2025, Science Advances (11)
Coral reefs can mitigate flood damages by providing protection to tropical coastal communities whose populations are dense, growing fast, and have predominantly lower-middle income. This study provides the first fine-scale, regionally modeled valuations of how flood risk reductions associated with hybrid coral reef restoration could benefit people, property, and economic...
A Colorado Front Range grassland exhibits decreasing dominance of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) over time
Janet S. Prevey, Timothy R. Seastedt
2025, Ecosphere (16)
Causes, consequences, and potentials for recovery from invasions by the invasive annual grass, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), in western North America have been extensively documented. The vast majority of these studies have come from regions where yearly precipitation is dominated by “winter-wet” patterns, but this species has also demonstrated its ability...
Local perceptions of marine conservation aquaculture for the restoration of native Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in Downeast, Maine
Melissa. E. Flye, Carly C. Sponarski, Joseph D. Zydlewski
2025, Marine Policy (171)
The entities responsible for the management of the endangered Gulf of Maine Distinct Population Segment of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) have partnered with a commercial aquaculture company to apply a novel conservation aquaculture program. This effort marks a major shift in management and has garnered mixed public reactions. Recent expansion...
